The Timbre Reconfiguration
by Smeg699
Summary: Instead of traveling to Barden for her college education, Beca instead gets four years in LA to make her dreams happen. How will our little DJ fare with a pair of hot blonds and five crazy scientists?
1. The Introduction Destabilization

**Smeg's A/N:** Well, hello to all my old friends, long time no see. I'm back, albeit in an odd fashion here I know some of you are thinking, but I believe this will be a fun little trip. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten my last entry for Holiday Happenings (It's nearly finished actually), and I also have another story all of my own that I am working on right now that I'm looking forward to writing. So, a little more about this idea here. Electronis Zappa and I have put our heads together and come up with a rather unique idea for a Pitch Perfect tale set in the Pasadena, CA of The Big Band Theory (a show we are both huge fans of). This is a little tidbit, a teaser if you will, in order to gauge people's interest in this idea. If you like it, please let us know by following it AND leaving glowing reviews (I hope). Anyway, my spiel is done, Zap, you're up brothah!

**Zap's A/N:** This is another idea that popped up. Still working on Six Inches to the Left. And I can confirm the next chapter of Holiday Happenings will be out soon. From here on out the delay is on me as I urged Smeg to do something to make it better. Anyway, on with it.

**Final Note:** This story is starting off in July of 2011, during the summer between Seasons 4 and 5 of The Big Bang Theory.

* * *

**The Introduction Destabilization**

Beca surveyed the last of the boxes sitting on the floor of the lobby. She was thrilled to be here, that her parents accepted her proposal. Instead of forcing her to go directly to college, they had instead agreed to let her come to Los Angeles and try and break into the music industry. After some debate it was decided that she could try her luck in LA for four years, and if she hadn't made any progress by then, she'd give in and move to Atlanta to attend Barden like her father wanted.

Glancing at the elevator Beca once again inwardly cursed the out of order sign and yellow caution tape, at least the tenth time she had done that since her and her mother had started this whole ordeal. She wondered what had happened to it, and when it would be repaired. Regardless, it wouldn't be tonight, a sentiment echoed by her mother as she walked down the stairs, gently massaging her back before she also swept her blue-eyed gaze over the last few remaining boxes.

"Looks like we're just about done." Beth said as she joined her daughter. "Even without the useless elevator."

"Yeah, we can get these last couple no problem. Then comes the even more daunting task of unpacking it all, which I won't have you around for." Beca agreed before turning at the sound of the front door of the building opening to find a blonde woman dressed as a waitress and an Indian man enter.

"Hey there, you must be the new one renting 5A." The blonde said walking up to them and holding out her hand to the shorter girl. As she approached her, Penny couldn't help but give the girl's appearance a quick once over. Combat boots, faded, dark skinny jeans, a dark maroon tank-top covered with a dark grey hooded sweatshirt. All of it combined in the blond waitress' mind, most especially the quantity of earrings which included a spike on her left side, to give Penny a good idea of what she was all about. She couldn't help but think, as she waited for the girl to take her hand, _At least she's not another Alicia._

"Yeah, that would be me." Beca said, looking between the two, her eyes lingering a moment on Penny and taking in the blond's appearance. If Beca had to place a guess, she'd figure that the girl worked at the Cheesecake Factory, at least the outfit seemed similar to the ones worn by waitresses at the one up in Bellevue that last she was there. Still, she was really hot, even given the unflattering waitress outfit. Reaching out, she took the proffered hand and gave it a friendly shake as she added, "I'm Beca."

"I'm Penny and my mute friend here is Raj." Penny explained with a nod to Raj, whom she noticed had his eyes bulging at the hot brunette. When the poor boy gave a shy little wave, Penny couldn't help rolling her eyes at him before turning back to Beca and adding, "Welcome to the building. I live in 4B so I'm sure we'll see you around. Good luck with the last of your stuff."

"No doubt, and thanks." Beca nodded with a smirk as Beth rolled her eyes at her daughter's antics.

She knew of Beca's preferences, and didn't mind in the least, but it was a mother's job to taunt her kids mercilessly about any romantic decisions she had always felt. So after the young blond girl and quiet Indian boy had walked up the stairs, her daughter's eyes following the blond until she vanished from sight, Beth gave a slow count to ten before she spoke up, "Well, she was pretty. You guys would make a cute couple."

Which earned her the blush and furiously whispered, "Mom!"

Beth was still laughing as she picked up her share of the last boxes and raised an impatient eyebrow towards her daughter.

* * *

"So we just met your new upstairs neighbor." Penny said as she and Raj entered Sheldon and Leonard's apartment, Raj making a beeline for the refrigerator. She knew that the boys kept a few beers in there, mainly so that Raj would be able to talk whenever the gang was gathered together. Sure enough, the sound of a bottle being opened followed in the silence after her pronouncement. Before Sheldon filled it up.

"How horrible is it?" Sheldon asked, concern evident in his voice as he raised his gaze to look first at Penny then Raj, waiting impatiently for the answer.

"Really cute girl. I call dibs." Raj said after taking a swig of beer. Walking back into the living room he stopped beside Penny to glare down at Leonard.

"Sweetie, I've got some bad news for you." Penny said with a smile, still amazed it took alcohol to get him to talk around her, given what happened when he and Leonard briefly switched apartments. Putting a consoling arm onto Raj's shoulder she said, as delicately as she could manage, "You're not her type."

"Hold on, none of this answers my question." Sheldon said, perturbed that once again the conversation had been diverted to what he considered frivolous matters.

"Nothing ever does." Penny said, tossing a big grin to the crazy man in their midst.

"That's not true!" Sheldon said, sitting up straighter on the couch before continuing, "Technically everything answers my question. You guys just never provide sufficient detail to fully resolve my queries."

"I'm sorry, we really didn't get her life story in the few minutes she was checking me out in the lobby." Penny said. Then decided to tease the man a little more she added, "But, she was wearing rather heavy looking combat boots."

"You don't know that!" Raj countered, jumping back to Penny's earlier comment and appearing visibly upset that yet another girl was not interested in him, dejectedly adding. "I'm from the 'mysterious sub-continent of India. She might be into that."

"Yeah, I do." Penny said right back to him, diverting her attention from where Sheldon was starting to twitch at the thought of a combat-booted upstairs neighbor stomping around at all hours of the night. "Trust me, her eyes were all over me, and by the way she was dressed… Well, I'd say she likes girls more than Sheldon."

"YOU like girls more than Sheldon." Leonard interjected, taking hold of Penny's hand and giving it a friendly squeeze. "So, really, that's not saying a lot. And, Sheldon, breathe, I'm sure Penny was just kidding about the boots… You were, weren't you? Tell me you were."

"EXCUSE ME!" Sheldon said loudly, finally finding his voice enough to join in the conversation. "I think what you meant to say is that 'she likes girls more than Sheldon DOES'. But that hardly matters now. This is a disaster. Combat boots? I can just picture the sleepless nights as she stomps all over the apartment, no doubt blasting death metal as loud as she can. Leonard, I forbid you from helping her set up her stereo."

Before anyone else could respond, they all heard the sound of two pairs of feet walking past their landing, their owners stomping loudly as they went, voices that carrying through the door. Penny heard the older woman, Beca's mom probably, asking, "So, where do you plan to set up all that DJing equipment your dad just bought for you?"

"Well, I had been thinking to set it up in the first bedroom, the one by the bathroom. That's why I had us put the bedframe into the other room." Beca's voice carried through, the last bit getting quieter as the pair moved on up to the fifth floor.

Penny barely stifled a laugh at the look of horror on Sheldon's face as what the short brunette had said sunk in.

* * *

**A/N (again): **Well, that's it, folks. So, please let us know what you thought? Leave a review, give us a favorite or a follow? We want to know if this is something that people might be interested in reading more about, because if it is, we're happy to keep on writing.


	2. The Bellas Relocation

**A/N: **Wow... Apparently people aside from Zappa and I are actually into this idea. Thanks everyone for the reviews, especially you rps (Guest) because I can't actually send you a PM about it. So here we are, chapter 2. I hope everyone likes it, and if you do please leave us a review. We thrive on your attention!

* * *

**The Bellas Relocation**

"Would you look at that, a moving truck." Sheldon said happily as Leonard parked. The pair of them climbing out of the front of Leonard's car with Raj carrying the full bags of Chinese food climbing from the back. As the three took in the sight of a moving truck, a couple of figures currently unloading items from its open back, Sheldon was practically squirming with excitement. With a hopeful look on his face, he turned to the others and added, "Please oh please oh please let the infernal noise maker be moving out."

"Sheldon be nice, she's cool. She hasn't tried to steal Penny from me." Leonard admonished. Still thankful that the girl who had moved into the apartment above theirs not quite a year ago had never in fact even expressed any interest in his girlfriend. Most especially when he and Penny had not been together while he was dating Raj's sister, Priya, over the previous year.

In fact, they hadn't actually seen much of the short brunette girl over the last year. She spent most of her time alone in her apartment, or out doing things that the boys had never really discussed with her. Actually, now that Leonard gave it some thought, he realized he didn't even know what the young girl did. As far as he was aware, the only thing she did do was occasionally play loud music, which annoyed the hell out of Sheldon.

"Yeah, instead she stole Lakshmi from me." Raj said dejectedly, referring to the woman with whom he had briefly contemplated having an arranged marriage with, despite the fact that she and Raj both played for the same team.

"Raj, that was never going to work, and you know it." Leonard said as the group started walking towards the entrance. The Indian astrophsycist opened his mouth to protest, but then suddenly got really quiet as two attractive young women walked out of the building's entrance.

"If that's all it takes to be cool then I'm the coolest person you know." Sheldon said as they got closer to the truck and he attempted to get a view of the stuff that an older man was moving to the edge of the truck's bed so that it could be carried inside. Leonard was fairly certain that Sheldon was attempting to figure out, based on stuff being moved in, if these new neighbors would be as annoying as he found their current upstairs neighbor to be.

"It takes a little more than that." Leonard pointed out as the two girls walked up to the truck still seemingly unaware of the three scientists approaching the entrance.

"Ben, can you give me a hand with my telescope please?" Aubrey asked, knowing that Chloe's father was somewhere inside the truck, helping out by moving some of the buried stuff in the back towards the front so that she and Chloe would have an easier time. As she asked the question she spotted, out of the corner of her eye, three guys approaching.

"A telescope, that's promising." Sheldon said, looking over the contents of the truck to see if there's anything that would annoy him. From what he could see based solely on what was sitting on the edge of the truck, he couldn't see anything that would be more annoying than all the racket that Beca made about once every week or so.

"What was that?" Chloe asked just noticing the trio, having been so focused on what was left in the truck that she completely missed the three men who had been walking up the street A quick glance revealed three relatively normal seeming guys. One, the one who had just spoken up, was taller, looking a bit like a praying mantis with jerky movements of his head and a rather condescending manner if Chloe had to guess based on her first glimpse of him. Standing in the back of the three was an Indian fellow in a sweater vest a little taller than she was carrying a bag of what smelled to be Chinese food. The third man, shorter than the other two and wearing glasses, immediately made calming movements with his hands and spoke up.

"Nothing don't mind him, he's harmless. Mostly" Leonard said, hoping to keep the girls from interacting with Sheldon too much as he knew exactly how most people reacted to the rather quirky physicist.

"Hitcherhiker's fan, that's nice." Ben said with a smile as he found the telescope where it had been securely packed into the van before the long trip from Atlanta. Carrying it out and carefully handing it down to Aubrey, Ben took a moment to look over the three boys.

"Yeah, I've read all the books, except _And Another Thing_, but that doesn't really count anyway." Leonard explained before realizing exactly how nerdy that sounded. Attempting to cover for it he stepped forward and extended his hand towards the man who had spoken, Ben if he had venture a guess, and introduced himself, Sheldon and Raj. "I'm Leonard and this is my roommate Sheldon, we live in 4A. And this is our friend Raj, he doesn't live with us."

"I'm Audrey and she's Chloe, we're moving into 5B." Aubrey said with a nod to the redhead, taking Leonard's hand when he turned to her. As she looked over the three newcomers, the blond let her eyes linger for a moment on the Indian man in the back with the bags of food. He almost seemed to be hiding back there, hoping no one would notice him. Something about him struck a memory in her, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Rats!" Sheldon replied upon hearing that Beca wasn't moving out. As his slightly whackadoodle roommate opened his mouth to start what would most likely be the next incarnation of the Spanish Inquisition, Leonard spoke up and cut him off.

"Sheldon, I told you to be nice." Leonard said once again, deciding it would be best to try and get Sheldon the answers he was looking for. He remembered vividly the reaction that Sheldon's questions had received when Alicia, the lady who used to live in Beca's apartment, and wanted to avoid a similar reaction here. "So judging by the Georgia plates, you guys came a long way. What brings you to Pasadena, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well, I'm looking to be an actress and Aubrey's here for her doctorate work in astrophysics at Cal Tech. She starts in the fall." Chloe explained. Beaming at the three guys as she explained their situation. She knew that Aubrey was nervous but extremely excited about the chance to do her graduate studies at Cal Tech. "In fact, I have an audition for something coming up in a few weeks here. I'm totes excited about it, could be a great start."

"That's really cool, Raj is an astrophysicist and we all work there. And my girlfriend Penny is also an actress. She's been in a few things so far." Leonard said when Chloe finished, trying not to seem like he was bragging when he was talking about Penny being his girlfriend.

"Wait, are you Dr. Koothrapaali, from the People article like four years ago?" Aubrey asked as she finally realized why he seemed so familiar to her. Raj smiled weakly and shook his head, his gaze dropping to the ground as he attempted to sidestep towards the entrance. As soon as Leonard mentioned Dr. Koothrapaali being at Cal Tech the pieces clicked into place and she remembered the article that she had read about him in People four years earlier and about how he was an "up and coming star" in the field. "I have to say, Dr. Koothrapaali, I'm extremely excited to have a chance to work with you. I read a few of your papers on trans-Neptunian objects and I think that they were simply brilliant."

"Oh, Raj has moved on since then to a much more important field of study. He has become my assistant. We're looking into dark energy right now." Sheldon supplied, backhandedly brushing off the years of fruitless work that Raj had put into his other studies. "I'm sure he would tell you all about it, except that he has a pathological issue about talking to attractive women. He essentially won't be able to talk to you unless he's consumed an alcoholic beverage or two."

"MOM! I'll get that box." Chloe called out interrupting Aubrey as she started to answer Sheldon. From the corner of her eye the redhead had noticed her mother reaching for a particular box that Chloe had packed with extra care, and had planned to unload personally. She had been hoping that the box, which contained a few of her more, uh, personal items, would have been overlooked with all the rest of the boxes. Her outburst, however, drew everyone's attention into the truck and caused her mother to quirk a knowing eyebrow at her. Trying to cover her sudden interruption she added, hoping people would believe the lie, "It's, uh, some fragile mementos from, uh, our time at Barden."

"Sorry, dear. I'll let you two take care of this one, then..." Tracey said hiding her grin at her daughter's obvious embarrassment at the box and deducing the content. Deciding to help her cover it, she turned to the three boys and said, "So, can you boys tell us a good pizza place around here? We're going to be quite hungry when we get all this stuff upstairs, especially since we can't use the elevator."

"We tend to order from Graziano's." Leonard said, giving a knowing glance to Sheldon at the mention of the elevator. Seeing Raj trying to frantically gesture towards the door while Aubrey and Chloe's attention was diverted he added, "I'm sure there is probably a menu by the mailboxes."

"Thanks for the suggestion, we'll check it out." Ben said. Noticing Raj making his way towards the door, Ben gave a way and added, "Well, it was nice meeting you boys. I'm sure the girls will be see you around the building from time to time, but we have to get back to unloading. Have to have the truck back by 6:30 so."

"No problem, we'll see you around." Leonard said, adding a little wave as they headed for the building. Before going through the doors to the lobby he saw Aubrey and Chloe talking to each other and saw each girl look over their shoulders towards the building. "Raj, buddy, if you have to work with that Aubrey girl, you are screwed…"

"Shut up." Raj said weakly as they started making their way up the stairs. But by the dejected way his head was hanging, it was obvious that he was thinking the same thing. After they rounded the corner and were coming to the first floor, Sheldon stopped suddenly and turned to Leonard.

"Leonard, please do me a favor and don't fall in love with the redhead. You've clearly got a thing for actresses, and we don't need another Penny hanging out around our apartment and mooching off our food and wifi." Sheldon pleaded. It having just occurred to him that they might be looking at another Penny situation with the new actress in the building.

"You do know I'm back with Penny right?" Leonard asked. Shaking his head at the implication that Leonard would change his mind so swiftly about Penny.

"For now, but as fickle as she is, who knows how long that will last." Sheldon answered. At the unbelieving look on Leonard's face, Sheldon simply quirked an eyebrow and cocked his head at the ridiculousness of his roommate before turning to continue walking upstairs.

"There's just no winning with you is there?" Leonard asked, exasperated as he called after his Sheldon. With a growl he turned as well, continuing up the steps beside him with Raj trailing behind.

"I bet you're really regretting going to Princeton now aren't you?" Sheldon asked.

* * *

As Aubrey piled the last set of boxes into the lobby area, she looked around the room, surveying the mass of boxes and various pieces of furniture sitting there and wondering how it was that the last four years of her life with Chloe could be so easily squeezed into such a small area. Room enough that people could still walk around their stuff to get to the mailboxes. As Chloe joined her, with her parents right on the redhead's heels, Aubrey looked at the still bright and cheerful face of her long-time friend.

"Whew! That's the last of the boxes." Chloe said, beaming her smile around at three of the people she loved the most in the world. Looking to her mom and dad she added, "And look at that, plenty of time for you guys to go drop off the truck."

"Yup, we did good. I'm glad we didn't try and lug it all upstairs, however, because we'd only be half way done. In a way, I'm glad that you two are coming from the dorms. If we had had to move an apartment, or heaven forbid, a house full of stuff we wouldn't have been able to finish before midnight, I swear. I about broke my back with your box of shoes, Chlo-Bear…" Ben joked, stretching his aching back muscles for a moment. Both Chloe and her mom rolled their eyes, Ben had been giving the pair of them a hard time about the amount of shoes they claimed they had needed as long as the two could remember.

"Give it a rest, Ben. Though Aubrey's collection was considerably lighter. I'm surprised that after 4 years of living together our girl hasn't taught you a better appreciation for shoes and purses, Bree." Tracey said, swatting her husband's arm as she leaned against a stack of boxes.

"Believe me, she has tried. But I just can't be bothered to care. There are other, more important things to worry over than whether or not my shoes match my purse." Aubrey said, her breath coming slightly heavier than normal due to the amount of lifting and carrying she had been doing over the last few hours.

"As much as I'd love to indulge in shoe and purse related talk right now, I think we need to get the truck back. Dear, do you want to follow me in Chloe's car? I figure we can stop by that Graziano's place on the way back from dropping the truck off with pizza for everyone. Sound good?" Ben asked the three women, all of whom agreed. Tracey grabbed her purse, cell phone, and Chloe's car keys before giving each of the girls a hug.

"Ok, so I guess you guys can start hauling this all upstairs while we get the pizza. If you need anything, I have my phone so call me. Maybe you can ask some of those Cal Tech boys from upstairs to help too, they looked like good kids." Tracey said, gesturing with her phone to emphasize it as she nodded up the stairs.

"Nah, I think we got it, Mrs. Beale. I wouldn't want to inconvenience them, especially if I end up working with Dr. Koothrapaali, I don't want him to think I'm lazy or anything." Aubrey said quickly. She had seen Chloe's face light up and the redhead had started to turn towards her, her mouth opening as if to say that that was a great idea.

"Hmmm, fine. I guess we can do this ourselves. It's only _five_ floors after all." Chloe said, a bit grumpily and making sure to emphasize the fact that they would now be walking up five floors with all their belongings.

"Hey, we aren't in the Bellas anymore, Chlo. This is the only way I have to make you do cardio now. So get on it! Oh, and make sure that one of those pizzas has extra cheese, please." Aubrey said, slapping Chloe's ass playfully like she used to do when the Bellas were running laps around the auditorium back at Barden. The action basically earned her a glare from the redhead that lasted for a few seconds before Chloe was smiling again at the fond memories of their college years.

"Extra cheese, got it. And pepperoni, if I recall, right Aubrey?" Ben asked, making note. When the blond just nodded eagerly he turned to his daughter and said, "And I know Tracey wants Hawaiian. I'll eat nearly anything, and Chloe inherited her mother's love of fruit on pizza, so I think we're set. We'll stop and get some beers and sodas on the way back too, I think I saw a grocery store a couple blocks away when we were driving over."

"Sounds perfect Daddy, thanks!" Chloe said, bouncing over and giving him a hug and kiss on the cheek.

"Anything for my baby girl. Come on dear, let's get going, we don't want to have to pay any late fees or anything." Ben said before turning to walk out to the moving truck. Tracey gave a last wave to the girls before following him out.

Chloe leaned on the boxes for a few minutes watching the door that her parents had vanished out, thinking about the past, the present and the future. The last four years had been an amazing experience for Chloe, leaving her with the other half of her bright and bubbly soul. Aubrey and Chloe had met their first day of freshmen orientation when they both moved into a dorm room in Baker Hall at Barden University, and the pair had been nigh unto inseparable since then. Together they had experienced the thrills and terrors of being freshmen, the joy of finding and joining the Barden Bellas a capella group, the pangs of heartache and disappointment, the pure bliss of budding love.

All of it, through all the trials and tribulations, had brought the pair of them here. Pasadena, California. Chloe aspiring to be the newest and brightest star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. Aubrey looking forward to her graduate work as an astrophysicist at Cal Tech, which was something that still came as a shock to Chloe. When she had first met the blond in their freshmen year, Aubrey was all about being a doctor or a lawyer. Her dad had told her that there were only three ways to be a success in life. Run your own multinational corporation, fight tooth and nail in the courtroom day in and day out, or save people's lives. Those were the only options, and Aubrey had had no interest in going into business, so that left lawyer and doctor.

Of course, that all changed in their sophomore year when, after taking a required physics class, Aubrey had been forced to attend a lecture by one Neil deGrasse Tyson given to the Barden School of the Sciences. Chloe could still remember the look on Aubrey's face when the blond had walked back into their dorm room afterwards. It looked as though someone had opened the door to eternity and let Aubrey take a peak.

The very next day Aubrey had gone to her student advisor and told her that she wanted to change her major. The advisor, an old friend of Aubrey's father, had protested. He had said that there was no money to be had as a scientist, that there was no future in it. Aubrey persisted, pushing against all the comments that she knew were basically her dad's words funneled through his old friend. Eventually she gave up on convincing him and requested a new advisor. Reluctantly he gave in, let her switch advisors, and then shortly after, she switched from the law track she had been on to sciences, astrophysics to be precise.

"Hey! These boxes aren't gonna move themselves slacker. Come on and help me, besides, you have the key." Aubrey's voice broke through Chloe's trip back down memory lane and jolted the redhead awake. It had been a very busy few weeks and Chloe thought that everything must be catching up with her if she was standing around and daydreaming about the past.

"Alright, alright. Man, you really are an aca-slave driver…" Chloe said, reverting back to their old habit of adding "aca" to nearly everything, something that had amused everyone in last year's Barden Bellas to no end.

"Yeah, get that aca-ass moving and help me with these boxes." Aubrey said, grinning.

Five trips up and down the stairs later found the girls with a little more room in the lobby, and a lot more heavy breathing as they took a quick break, leaning against the wall by the broken elevator. Grabbing her bottle of water off the stack of boxes she had set it on, Chloe drank a long, refreshing swallow before handing it to Bree, who drank just as thirstily.

"I think we really should have asked those guys for help, Bree…" Chloe said, once her panting had subsided enough to talk.

"I don't know, you saw 'em all. I bet they couldn't lift a box up these steps if we were offering to have sex with 'em once they got to the top." Aubrey said, remembering the distinct lack of muscles on all three.

"Maybe, but still…" Chloe said, feeling her energy coming back slowly as they rested.

"But nothing, Chlo. Besides, they looked like they were bringing home their dinner, and would you really have wanted to interrupt them eating?" Aubrey asked with finality.

"Maybe…" Chloe said, but quietly so that the blond couldn't hear her. "You know, I figure another ten more trips like those last five and I think we'll basically be done… Might as well get started."

Aubrey was about to respond, agreeing with the redhead when her phone started ringing. Without even needing to look at it she knew who it was, the ringing a dead giveaway. Pulling her phone from her pocket she said, "Hold on, my sister's calling."

"Janet always did have great timing." Chloe teased as Aubrey answered. Though she secretly didn't mind the extra chance to rest. Taking her water bottle back Chloe took another, smaller sip as she heard Aubrey's side of the conversation.

"Janet, how are things in the Big Apple?" Aubrey asked, her sister having moved back out to New York after she had finished her time at Johns Hopkins Medical School. She still remembered how proud she had been, how proud their father had been, when Janet had finished her time there and chosen to return to New York for her residency.

"Not good little sis." Janet said. Aubrey could tell by the tone of Janet's voice alone that things were not good. She could practically hear her sister fidgeting, her nails clicking together nervously as she had since they were kids. After a brief pause to collect her thoughts, her sister continued, "Seth and I just had dinner with the parentals to talk about the pig roast."

"How's that bad?" Aubrey asked, concern rising in her voice. The Posen Family Pig Roast had been a tradition since Great-Grandfather Posen had put the finishing touches on the family house in upstate New York over a century ago. Every summer since Aubrey was born the family had gone up there, and taken part in the family tradition. It was nearly as big a deal as Christmas. Naturally since becoming so close with Chloe during college, the redhead had been at the roasts for the last four years as well. Aubrey tried to keep down the panic in her voice as she pointed out, "Chloe and I have our tickets booked already. We'll be flying out in like two weeks…"

"I'd cancel them if I were you. Daddy's pissed you didn't win the finals two years in a row." Janet explained, her voice laced with concern and worry for her baby sister. "Plus he didn't like how close you and that brunette seemed, and he's always wondered about you and Chloe. He doesn't want you coming, either of you. Grandma Posen's still flipping out that gay marriage is legal here. Also, you know how he feels about you having switched from Law to the Sciences…"

"But we did something really amazing last year with the help of that DJ 22 mix Chloe found, and gay marriage has been legal in New York for a year now. Also, he's known about me changing my field of study for two." Aubrey pleaded, devastation evident in her tone of voice. The loss, as her father saw it, this last year at the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella Finals in New York was still an extremely sore subject for her. Despite mixing up their set after a disappointing showing in the semi-finals, the Barden Bellas had only managed to place second. But, as her father said, "Second place is just the first loser."

Chloe, very much paying attention to the conversation now as she saw Aubrey on the verge of tears, heard the blond say in a pitiful whisper, "And I've never missed a roast."

"Just do yourself a favor and don't come. You'll be miserable." Janet said. Trying to spare her sister the pain that she knew Aubrey would experience if she were to be in their father's presence so soon after the Bellas second defeat. Gently she added, "I've gotta go, baby sis. I promise, Seth and I will come out and see you two as soon as we can get some time off. I love you, Bree."

"Yeah ok Jan, thanks. Love you too." Aubrey said hitting end. As soon as she did, the tears she had been fighting since the conversation started began to fall. One forlorn look to Chloe was all it took to get the redhead moving towards her as she said, "I've been basically disowned, just for being me."

"Oh sweetie." Chloe said, wrapping Aubrey up in a big hug. As she wrapped her arms around Aubrey Chloe heard the front door opening, but didn't care who it was. Right now, Aubrey was hurting and that's all Chloe could care about. "It'll be ok Bree, you know I love you. We can get through this. Your dad will come around. He'll learn to accept your choices, I promise. Or, if he doesn't, I'll kick his ass myself."

Aubrey laughed weakly at the thought of tiny, carefree, happy-go-lucky Chloe trying to take on her 6'3" ex-Marine father. The sheer ridiculousness of the situation soon had her giggling tear-filled giggles with Chloe. Over the redhead's shoulder she saw a pair of girls walking in through the lobby and surreptitiously trying to pass the pair of them without intruding. Both girls had blond hair, one with a very impressive chest for such a short girl. The two newcomers shared a knowing look with each other as they made their way up the steps. But it didn't matter, Aubrey didn't care who they were or what they thought. Choking back the last of her sniffles, letting the last of the giggles erase them from her mind she let go of Chloe and said, "Come on, Chloe, these boxes aren't going to move themselves. I want to have everything upstairs by the time Ben and Tracey come back, I don't need another breakdown when I tell 'em about the Roast happening here in the lobby."

* * *

"How you holding up Aubrey?" Tracey asked as she sat down next to the blonde, a paper plate in her hands with a few slices of pizza on it.

When Tracey and Ben had gotten back with the pizza the two girls were just coming downstairs to grab the last couple boxes left to take up. One look at the two girls and Tracey knew something was up. The sweating faces, the blotchy red cheeks, flaccid muscles were all expected as the girls had done a lot of hard work today. But the red rimmed eyes, the slight evidence of tear stains on the cheeks… Something had happened while they were gone. Naturally Tracey had asked, but she had only received a pitiful look from Aubrey and a "we'll talk about it upstairs" from her daughter. Once the four were all upstairs and the last of the boxes had been placed in the kitchen, Tracey had again inquired what had happened.

Haltingly, with sobs from Aubrey and one-armed hugs from Chloe, the pair had explained to Tracey and Ben about the phone call from Aubrey's sister, and what it all meant. Ben, being as emotional and loving as Chloe was, had immediately blown up, getting furious at Aubrey's father for his actions and ranting for a solid five minutes about what he'd do the next time he saw that man. Of course, the idea of Ben taking on her dad had had Aubrey laughing nearly as hard as the thought of Chloe doing it, and soon all three girls were laughing. It was only when Ben realized that his wife, daughter and adoptive daughter were all nearly in tears with laughter at his statements that he finally calmed down.

Tracey had, as soon as she had recovered from her bout of laughter, embraced Aubrey in a full-on Beale Hug. As Aubrey well knew from her four years together with Chloe and her family, the redhead's natural tendency towards invasion of privacy and hugs that knocked you onto your ass was an inherited trait. The same as the flaming red hair that engulfed her whenever she got a hug from Chloe or Tracey. When she felt Ben's arms and Chloe's wrap around her as well, Aubrey knew how lucky she was to have met Chloe her freshmen year.

Upon pulling back from the hug, Tracey had reached up and carefully wiped the tears off Aubrey's cheeks and said, "Well, if you ask me, dear, it's his loss. You know you're always welcome here in our family and we love you like you're our own daughter."

Naturally that had brought more tears to Aubrey's eyes, and Chloe's as well as the pair hugged in the middle of their new apartment in their new city on their new coast. A whole host of new experiences for the blond, and she was still a little bit rattled by it all. Nevertheless, at Tracey's words Aubrey smiled and said, "Better Mrs. Beale."

"You really should just call me Mom you know." Tracey said, wrapping an arm around the younger girl's shoulder. Sliding the slice of pepperoni pizza off her plate and onto Aubrey's she added, "Have another piece of pizza, it'll make you feel even better."

"Yeah, I would agree with that. This stuff really is good, we'll have to thank those guys in 4A." Chloe said, snagging another piece. With her long, delicate fingers Chloe happily plucked a couple pieces of pineapple off the top of her pizza and popped them into her mouth with a decadent smile.

"You know, Chlo, you make that look almost sinful…" Aubrey observed, smiling at the redhead who simply smiled even brighter.

"I blame her mother for that. That woman has been doing things with fruit to make men blush for many, many years…" Ben commented offhandedly, causing his wife to blush and his daughter to shriek.

"DAD! GROSS! I do NOT want to know what you and mom do behind closed doors!" Chloe said, throwing her dad a dirty look as he started chuckling.

"Who said we always close the door, dear?" Tracey asked innocently.

"Ok, you know what, I'm done with this conversation. I'm going to, uh, organize the bathroom or something…" Chloe said, wanting to get away from this. You'd think, though, that she would have been used to it by now. Her parents had been doing their utmost to embarrass their children since the kids were old enough to realize that parents were something to be feared. It always seemed easiest with their youngest daughter, however.

"No, no. Stay, Chloe. I promise, we'll behave." Tracey said, reaching out to grab hold of the younger redhead as she rose to walk away.

The four spent another couple of hours chatting, laughing and generally having a good time as they did some organizing of the various boxes and pieces of furniture that Aubrey and Chloe had brought from Atlanta. Finally though when Ben caught sight of his wife yawning, he looked at his watch and said, "Well, damn, would you look at that. It's nearly 9 o'clock here, which means it's midnight as far as we're concerned. I think it's time we went to our hotel for the night and left you two to get settled. We'll come by for lunch tomorrow, then maybe you guys can give us a lift to the airport, our flight leaves at 8."

"Awww, but we're having fun…" Chloe started to say, but only managed to get halfway through the sentence before a yawn obscured the rest of her words. "Oh, fine. Go on then. I still don't know why you guys decided to take the red eye back to Atlanta instead of spending another day here…"

"Well we thought about it, but we both have to work on Monday, and flying back tomorrow night means we have all day Sunday to rest up from the drive here. Don't worry, sweetie. We'll call you two in the morning and figure out something for lunch. I think I saw a Cheesecake Factory not far from here. Maybe we can do that for lunch. In fact, we can give your brother a call, see if he's able to join us too." Tracey said, getting up and moving to hug both the girls.

Ben stepped in next for his hugs before walking to the door. "Yeah, it'll just be like back at home. Assuming Junior doesn't have to spend all day tomorrow studying for his finals next week. Oh, and Aubrey, if your dad gives you anymore trouble, you be sure to call us straight away. We'll get him sorted out good."

"Thanks Ben. I appreciate it, really. In fact, you guys have been amazing these last few days helping with the move. I, we, appreciate everything you've done." Aubrey said, sharing a look with Chloe who nodded her agreement with the blond's words.

"Hey, like I said, you're family, Bree. And family sticks together. At least it should. And, speaking of sticking together, Chloe, try and visit your brother every once in a while, alright? I know he misses seeing all of us since he started at Cal Tech. He's thrilled that Aubrey's starting there, I think he's really looking forward to showing her around campus, and having the two of you so close." Ben said, holding the door open for Tracey to walk out.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure we'll spend a lot of time with him. He's only a few miles from here… In fact, I'm surprised he didn't try and come over to mooch free pizza from us. Too busy studying, I guess." Chloe said, walking over to stand by her dad and give him one last hug. As he started to close the door, though, she stopped him and said, "Nah, leave it open, it's really warm in here. Thanks, bye Daddy, bye Mom."

"Bye sweetie, we'll call in the morning. Take care of each other." Tracey called from the hallway. And with that, the pair vanished down the steps. Chloe sighed, leaning against the door as she listened to the sound of her parents' feet slowly getting quieter as they descended.

"Well, that's it, Bree. We've finished the move, except unpacking. Can you believe it? We're in California now." Chloe said, turning back towards the blond girl who stood in the middle of the room, looking at Chloe with a smile on her face.

"Well, yeah, I can believe it. That drive cross-country was enough to make anyone believe it. But, I know what you mean. Time to start our real lives now, isn't it?" Aubrey said, stepping slightly closer to the redhead.

"I know, I can't wait!" Chloe replied and started to close the door but stopped as she heard a noise from across the hall that sounded like keys rattling. Looking over she saw the door across the hall starting to open. Lingering for a moment to hopefully catch sight of another of their neighbors, Chloe heard Aubrey moving up beside her, no doubt curious as well.

As the door opened a girl walked out, Chloe took in her appearance from top to bottom. The girl was wearing heavy combat boots beneath a dark pair of skinny jeans. Covering her torso Chloe caught a brief glimpse of a maroon tank top before the girl turned to shut her door, leaving the redhead with only a view of a dark grey hooded sweatshirt that was unzipped in the front. As the girl turned back from closing her door, Chloe felt her breath catch a little at how simply beautiful she was with dark hair framing her face that was focused on her phone.

Chloe barely noticed the laptop bag the girl was carrying as she turned, completely oblivious of her audience of two as she started down the stairs. When Chloe finally found her voice again she said, "Score! Hot neighbor!"

"Mmmm, I don't know, Chlo. She looked a bit too 'alternative' for your tastes…" Aubrey said. Bumping the redhead with her hip to scoot her out of the door, she added, "You know what, I don't wanna be bothered anymore, I'm gonna close the door and just crack some windows. How about we sit and relax, watch some reruns of Grey's since your dad was nice enough to hook up the tv and bluray player?"

Absently Chloe agreed, her eyes lingering on the closed door for a moment before she turned back and smiled at Aubrey. "That sounds aca-awesome, Bree! I'll get us something to drink."


	3. The Reconnaissance Initiation

**A/N: **Wow, so this chapter took longer than I think either of us had expected, but hopefully it's long enough that it'll make up for being , and a response to Frozarts, we decided to call ourselves Team Zog (that's a Babylon 5 reference for those who don't get it!), just so you know. As an aside for those who may have read/are aware of Electronis Zappa's other stories (Six Inches to the Left, She'll Leave You With A Smile, and Slaying Intersected) he's decided that they are all now going to be "Team Zog" projects... So that means I have my work cut out for me apparently, lol. Anyway thanks to everyone who has left reviews, they are the motivation that keeps every writer writing I think, and we hope everyone enjoys this chapter just as much. Please leave a review and remember to tell your friends!

* * *

**The Reconnaissance Initiation**

Aubrey was starting to get a little worried. Chloe hadn't said more than a couple dozen words since the redhead had walked into their apartment over an hour ago, and most of those words were, "I want to go to a bar" which was followed shortly by, "And I want some cheesecake!"

Today was the day that the redhead had had her audition for that commercial. Aubrey hadn't known what the commercial was supposed to be for until just that morning when Chloe had gotten the final details of it from Joseph, a former schoolmate of theirs. Once the blond had heard the details, though, she had almost hoped that her roommate wouldn't get it, and judging by Chloe's reactions since getting home, she thought her wish might have been granted.

The pair climbed out of Chloe's car in silence, Aubrey having driven because Chloe seemed intent on drinking today, and stood awkwardly for a moment in the Cheesecake Factory's parking lot. It felt odd to Aubrey to be going to the Cheesecake Factory for drinking, but it was the closest place that had both cheesecake and alcohol, so what the hell. Shrugging at Chloe, she started off towards the entrance.

Inside was pretty much the same as it had been the last time the pair had been here, a couple of weeks earlier when the two of them, Ben, Tracey and Ben Jr. had met for lunch after they had moved into their new apartment. In a way it felt like the last two weeks had been just a blur. Both girls had been running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to get their new lives started in LA. In fact, it hadn't even dawned on her until this very morning that tomorrow was the day that they had been planning to fly out to New York for the Roast. Of course, that thought brought back the pain of what her sister had told her on the phone two weeks earlier, and so when Chloe suggested going out drinking, well, Aubrey had been more than willing to go along with that plan.

As the pair walked into the restaurant they were greeted by a pair of chipper staff members, one of whom held up a pair of menus and said, "Table for two?"

"Nope, we're just going to the bar… Assuming we can still get food in there?" Chloe said, already turning towards said font of alcohol and, hopefully, cheesecake.

"Yes, the bar is full-service. Feel free to seat yourselves." The host said, putting the two menus he was holding back onto the pile as Chloe started walking towards the bar with Aubrey trailing behind her.

Trying one more time to comfort her friend as they strode across the nearly empty bar towards where a blond girl who looked mighty familiar was currently helping a middle aged man on the far end of the bar, Aubrey spoke up, "Chloe, don't sweat it it's just a silly commercial. Did you even really expect to get it?"

"I don't know, Joseph did say I might have a shot." Chloe replied, still upset about what she thought was a terrible audition. She had known everything she was supposed to do, there wasn't a lot of lines or anything. But she had… gotten a feeling from the director and two executive producers who were running the audition that she hadn't nailed it.

"Yeah, well, Joseph also thinks Material Girl is his theme song." Aubrey pointed out as she pulled out a barstool for Chloe, then one for herself. With a chuckle she brought up what she felt was another very valid point and added, "Besides, is that how you want to be known, as the face of Wendy's? What's the 'Can You Hear Me Now' guy, the guy from those old Sprint commercials, or that cute T-Mobile girl doing?"

"I saw the Sprint Guy in an old episode of the West Wing, but you're right I suppose." Chloe said as she sat at the bar, her hopeful words very much at odds with the downcast yet thoughtful look on her face as she thought about what Aubrey had said.

"Hey, welcome to the Cheesecake Factory, what can I get you?" Penny greeted as she came over to them. Penny had noticed the pair as soon as they had walked in, but hadn't given them much thought. Now that she was closer, however, she thought they seemed familiar. Then it clicked where she had seen them. Raising her hand to point at the two she said, "Wait a sec, I know you guys, you're that nice couple that lives upstairs in 5B right? Nice to finally meet you!"

"Us, a couple?" Chloe asked, her words hard to understand as she was laughing fairly hard, the first time she'd laughed since her horrid audition and it felt good. After she got her giggles under control she added, "I guess I can see how you'd think that, but no we're not."

"Sorry, just the first time I saw you, you were saying you loved her and hugging pretty tightly." Penny explained. The pair had been very affectionate in the lobby when her and Bernadette had seen them hugging, and Penny wasn't sure she could be blamed. Hell, even Bernie had thought they were a couple. Of course, she hadn't seen much of them since that day, so she felt the need to say, "And I never saw anything to suggest otherwise."

"It's ok, I'd be lucky to have a girl as amazing as Chloe." Aubrey said, squeezing the redhead's hand. Smiling at her friend, who returned the grin, Aubrey placed their orders with the blond bartender, "Can I get a vodka cranberry for myself and a strawberry margarita for her?"

"Gonna need to see some IDs first." Penny said, not really caring because she was fairly certain they were both over 21, but wanting a chance to learn a little more about the pair under the guise of being a responsible bartender. The girls happily obliged her, each handing over a very different card. Both of which indicated that the girls were under 21, though they obviously hadn't been updated based on their birthdates, which put them both at 22. However it was the states the cards were from, and the names, that interested Penny the most. Raising an eyebrow she handed them back and asked, "New York and Georgia, that's Interesting, you two meet in college or something?"

"Yep, Barden in Atlanta." Chloe confirmed as they put their IDs away. "We were roomies freshmen year and have been inseparable since."

"And now you've moved out to LA together. That's kinda neat. Anyway, I'll go get those drinks ready." Penny said, smiling at the two friends as they still chuckled about her confusion over the nature of their relationship.

"That was really great, I needed that." Chloe said, wiping away a tear that had escaped while she was laughing. Finally calming down enough to stop laughing, except for that one giggle that just escaped, she added, "Imagine that, us a couple."

"Well, if you subscribe to the multiverse theory, then it's almost certain that there is a universe out there where you and I are madly in love with each other." Aubrey said, which received the typical eye-roll from Chloe. The redhead, as Aubrey knew well, wasn't nearly as into science as she was, and so whenever the blond started going on about multiverse this, or dark energy that, she could literally see Chloe's eyes glaze over… A lot like they were right now. So instead, the blond changed the topic. "And I'm quite ok with that, I meant what I said about how amazing you are."

"Awwww, Bree! You're amazing too! And I know you'll find your own hottie one day who cares about science just as much as you do so you two can keep each other stimulated… In more than one way!" Chloe said, adding a wink at the end that made the blond blush. She was still blushing when the blond came back with their drinks.

"Here are your drinks girls, what are we toasting?" Penny asked as she gave them their drinks, picking up a shot she made for herself. She knew it was technically against policy, but she also knew that they weren't gonna fire her. She was hot and worked at the Cheesecake Factory, she had a job here for life, as much as she hated it.

"To stupid TV commercials that would probably have sucked anyway." Aubrey said, lifting her glass and clinking it against Chloe's and Penny's. This earned a chuckle from Chloe and a raised eyebrow from Penny before all three girls take their sips.

"And to nice neighbors that are great bartenders." Chloe said after taking a drink of her margarita. Raising her glass again towards Penny this time she takes another sip, and the blond girl just smiles back at her.

"Awww thank you." Penny said, waving off the compliment as she puts her shot glass away in the sink. Turning back to the pair she can't help but look at the redhead and ask, "So, I take it you're actresses? That's really cool, I am too."

"I am, well, I want to be. Aubrey's going to Cal Tech to get her PhD in Astrophysics." Chloe explained, as what Penny said dawned on her. She had seen the blond around their building obviously, and remembered what Leonard had said when she and Aubrey were just moving in. Confirming her suspicions she asks, "So, are you the one dating Leonard? Penny, if I remember right."

"Yep, that's me." Penny confirmed, not surprised that the redhead knew who she was. Leonard had mentioned her and the other girl, Aubrey, to her as soon as she had gotten up to the boys' apartment with Bernadette that night. Of course, at the time she had told everyone that they were a couple, having not known any better. Still, they seemed like nice enough folks, definitely a lot better than Alicia. Deciding to reach out and try to help another newly arrived actress in LA, Penny can't help but ask, "Do you have an agent or anything? If not, I could probably hook you up with mine."

"No, I don't that would be really sweet of you." Chloe beamed. She had been wondering where and how you went about getting an agent. Her first gig, the failed commercial gig she was trying to forget with alcohol, had come from an old school friend, a former BU Harmonic. But she knew that that sort of thing would get her nowhere fast.

"Don't mention it, I already like you better than the last actress that lived on your floor." Penny explained. The blond had actually been quite happy when Alicia had moved out and Beca moved in, since the short brunette was about the complete opposite of that woman. With a knowing nod of her head she told the two girls, "She was such a skank, be glad you've never met her."

"I'll take your word for it." Chloe said, deducing it wasn't their current neighbor, which made Chloe happy to hear. She had been trying to run into the brunette girl since she had seen her coming out of her apartment two weeks ago, but just wasn't having any luck. The girl kept some really odd hours, though she did have great taste in music as far as Chloe was concerned. Deciding that maybe she could take advantage of Penny having lived in the building longer than she and Aubrey had, naturally, she decided to pry a little and hope her downstairs neighbor knew more about her neighbor across the hall. Trying to sound innocent she asked, "So how long have you lived in the building? What can you tell us about the others that live in the building? Your boyfriend, his roommate, the girl who lives across the hall from us…."

"I've lived there for close to five years now." Penny explained, noting Aubrey's eye roll at Chloe's mention of their neighbor. She wasn't sure why the blond would roll her eyes at the question, but just shrugged and continued on, "Leonard's great, he's some kind of physicist like his roommate Sheldon. As for Sheldon… Well he claims he's not crazy, I guess because his mother had him tested, but trust me, he's a bit whackadoodle. He takes some getting used to. He's a sweetheart once you get to know him, though."

"I got that impression, though I don't know that I've heard that expression before…" Aubrey nodded as she recalled the few encounters they've had with them since moving in. She could tell that the man was smart, like maybe even beyond smart. But he was definitely lacking in social niceties. Still, not entire uncommon in the science community as she had discovered during her undergrad studies at Barden.

"As for the girl across from you, nobody really knows much about her." Penny said, trying to realize exactly what she did know about the girl. Despite her having lived above Sheldon and Leonard for almost a year now, Penny and the rest didn't really know a lot about her. She more or less stuck to herself. Still, liking the fact that she had some new people to gossip with, she said, "Her name's Beca and she moved in last year. She checked me out, so she's got great taste in women, and she occasionally plays music really loudly, which just pisses Sheldon off to no end. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if maybe she doesn't do it on purpose because the few times I've seen her she's been wearing these really big but nice looking headphones. But it's good music, so Leonard and I don't mind."

"Great, now you're just going to stalk her more aren't you?" Aubrey groaned. At first she had found it to be kind of cute, the way Chloe would perk up and run to the peephole on the door whenever she heard a noise from the hallway only to walk back looking defeated a few moments later. But it had been starting to grate on her of late. The girl wasn't THAT cute, and what was with those ear monstrosities, anyway?

"It's not stalking, I just want to meet her, she's cute." Chloe said, defending herself for the umpteenth time. She knew that Bree thought she was crazy, but Chloe wanted to meet the girl properly and get to know her. She had gotten used to knowing their neighbors back at Barden, and felt that this was only the same thing… Right? Covering her own inner confusion, Chloe said, "I think she and I could be really fast friends."

"Hey, what are you guys doing tonight?" Penny asked, realizing that her shift was going to be over in a couple of hours, but that she kind of liked the two girls and wanted to get to know them better. Plus, today was Thursday, and ever since the guys had instituted the, as she felt it to be, rather stupid concept of "Anything Can Happen Thursdays", she had tried to find ways to use it to have fun annoying Sheldon. She realized that inviting over two strangers to dinner might be just a perfect way to do that. As the girls both shrugged she added, "Well, Leonard, Sheldon, myself and a few of our friends were probably going to have dinner tonight. You guys should come, get to know us and our friends better."

"Hmmm, well, I think that's definitely something we would be interested in." Chloe said quickly, knowing it might be a chance to get more information on their mysterious roommate from the others. Looking at Aubrey with pleading eyes the blond just sighed and nodded her agreement.

"See, there you go!" Penny replied, pulling out her phone to text Leonard that the upstairs neighbors would be coming and that they'd need more of whatever food the boys were picking up. As an afterthought she remembered that Aubrey said she did something science-y and said, "And plus our friend Raj will be there, I think he's an astro-something too."

"Oh! You mean Dr. Koothrapaali?" Aubrey asked, actually a little excited about the whole affair now.

"Ummm, yeah. He works with Sheldon and the others. Wait. You said you were going to be going to school at Cal Tech? That's where they all work." Penny said as Chloe's words from before sank in. "Wow, talk about a small world, eh?"

"Yeah, no kidding. And that sounds aca-awesome!" Chloe said, smiling at Aubrey who smiled back. "Ummm, so, when we came here I kind of had two things in mind. Drinking, which you've taken care of, thank you so much… And, well, cheesecake. Think I could trouble you…?"

"For a menu? Sure, not a problem. Just let me know what you want and I'll put the order in." The blond replied, going over to fetch one of the dessert menus and giving it to Chloe. She was about to say something else before she noticed one of the servers walk up to the bar, obviously with a drink order to fill and she sighed before getting back to work.

* * *

"Leonard, this seems to be an awful lot of food for just five people." Sheldon said as he watched his roommate unpack the Chinese order. A quick glance over the quantity of rice, dumplings and chow mein that Leonard was continuing to pull from the bag that he and Raj had just walked in with told Sheldon that his roommate was expecting more than just Penny to come join the three of them and Amy, who was supposed to show up later for dinner. A quick rundown of their friends who were able to attend caused the taller physicist to cock his head to the side as he asked, "I thought Bernadette had to work late tonight? Something to do with microbiology nonsense that doesn't really matter."

"We do have other friends you know." Leonard pointed out as Raj got a beer from the refrigerator. As he expected, the cryptic remark caused Sheldon's brow to furrow in puzzlement as he tried to figure out to whom Leonard was referring. Adjusting his glasses slightly as he took another of the containers of food from the bag, he shared an amused, conspiratorial grin with Raj who knew exactly who was coming to dinner with the five old friends.

"Like who, Stuart?" Sheldon asked. Knowing that there were only a few other options left, he decided to run through the list, starting with the most likely. "I could be ok with that if he gave us a bigger discount at his store."

"No, not Stuart. And besides, you're already getting the 'friends and family' discount…" Leonard said, thinking back to when they first started to get that particular discussion with Stuart as he glanced towards the sword in particular that bought it.

"Is it my good friend Wil Wheaton?" Sheldon asked. For the first time since the realization of the extra food, Sheldon was slightly excited. Ever since mending fences with Wil, and adding that traitor Brent Spiner to his mortal enemy list, Sheldon found that he quite enjoyed the time he spent with his good buddy. Which reminded him, he had had something to run past Wil, so with a bit of hope in his voice he said, "I've been wanting to talk to him about an idea I had for _Fun With Flags _that I think he'd be perfect for."

"I might actually watch that." Raj said, joining the conversation. As amusing as it was seeing his friend acting like a robot on the internet, a show with Wil's input might be genuinely entertain.

"You mean you don't?" Sheldon asked, clearly offended. When Raj looked away, slightly embarrassed, Sheldon turned his attention to Leonard as if to seek help in vilifying their counterpart. When Leonard avoided his gaze as well, Sheldon wondered how many more people might be joining his list of mortal enemies today.

"Sorry buddy, it's not Wil Wheaton." Leonard said, trying to stop his roommate from going off on a tangent, or having a mental breakdown when he realized that none of them actually watched his show.

"Oh no, it better not be Leslie Winkle or Kripke." Sheldon listed off, running down to the very bottom of the list of possible people who Leonard might have invited to join them for dinner. With a skeptical tone he shook his head saying, "I know this is 'Anything Can Happen Thursday', but it was my understanding that the idea was to have fun, not deal with my mortal enemies."

"I think between Leonard and Howard, it's pretty much a sure thing Leslie Winkle doesn't want anything to do with us. And she was never your biggest fan either…" Raj offered. Shaking his head sadly he added in a mournful tone, "And what a pity, I never got a chance to woo her."

"It's for the best, she would have crushed your heart into a million tiny pieces and we'd have to deal with whiny, mopey Raj." Leonard said as a knock came at the door. Raj looked ready to protest, but Leonard knew it was just his friend trying to save some face, so instead of listening he got up and walked towards the door saying, "I'll get it."

From the corner of his eye as he opened the door he saw Sheldon craning his neck, trying to get a glimpse of who would be knocking, since Penny or Amy would have simply walked in. Sporting a small smile as he knew what the unexpected guests would do to Sheldon's calm demeanor, Leonard opened the door wide to reveal the blazing red hair and bright blue eyes of their upstairs neighbor who was smiling brightly as she held a bottle of wine in her hands. Standing beside her was Aubrey whose arms contained a pie of some sort.

"Hi, Penny invited us down. And we thought we might as well bring some stuff. Red wine and pie, can't go wrong with those!" Chloe said as she offered up the bottle towards Leonard, who took it carefully. Stepping into the room she beamed at the two other guys standing around, Raj looking a bit poleaxed and Sheldon looking oddly confused and irritated.

"Yeah, yeah, come on in, we're still waiting on the girls." Leonard said. Taking the bottle of wine from Chloe and directing Aubrey and her pie towards the island in the kitchen. Gesturing towards Raj and Sheldon he said, "You remember Sheldon and Raj right?"

"We do." Aubrey confirmed as she walked in, nodding to both of the other scientists. As she walked through the apartment towards the kitchen Aubrey noticed many, many pieces of geek paraphernalia and smiled. As she set the pie down and turned to see Sheldon's expression, his face still twitching oddly as he adjusted to the inclusion of new faces into his circle of friends, she said cautiously, "Nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you too." Raj said in an overly exaggerated tones, accentuating his accent as much as possible. After his last conversation with the gorgeous blond and redhead, Raj was determined this time to make a better impression. Especially if she was going to possibly be working with him at Cal Tech. This might be his chance to find his Penny. And, as if speaking of the blond waitress was a summons, the door across the landing opened before Leonard even had a chance to get their front door closed and Penny poked her head out sniffing the air.

"I smell Chinese." The blond said as she shut her door and started across the hallway. Stopping for a quick kiss from Leonard who shut the door behind her. As she came into the room and saw her upstairs neighbors she nodded to them and said, "Hey girls."

"Hey." Chloe said, walking over and giving Penny a hug. The blond waitress looked a bit taken aback for a moment, but returned the hug from the overly affectionate redhead after a brief pause. "Thanks so much for inviting us, it's always so hard to make friends in a new city, well, at least that's what I hear…"

"Yeah, thanks for inviting us." Aubrey adds, never having been as bold about invading people's personal space as Chloe was and so instead simply nodding to their neighbor. "And, generally, Chlo, it can be a bit of a challenge. Most people, unlike you, tend not to just walk up to someone they've only met twice and give them giant hugs…"

"What?" The redhead said quietly as she let Penny go. "I like hugs…"

"Hey, it's not a problem, just a bit shocking. And as for the invite, well, I figured with Howard in space and Bernadette not being available, the numbers would still be something Sheldon could handle." Penny said, which earned her a glare from the taller man who finally realized why there were two relative strangers in his apartment.

"So this is your fault!" He said accusingly at the same time that Aubrey also spoke up.

"You have a friend in space?" Aubrey asked impressed, looking around the room. Everyone ignored Sheldon, as was their way, and nodded before Leonard spoke.

"Yeah, on the ISS, obviously. They sent up a telescope he designed and he got to go up as a payload specialist." Leonard confirmed. After a moment for a wistful smile thinking of Howard up on the space station orbiting the planet and accomplishing a lifelong goal of many of the people now in the apartment he turned to his roommate. "And just calm down, Sheldon. Everything will be alright. Getting to know new people isn't the horrible experience you seem to think it is."

"That's really cool." Chloe said, turning to Sheldon who had snorted in derision at Leonard's comment. Smiling her friendliest smile at the tall man she asked, "And who's Bernadette, your girlfriend?"

"Bernadette is Howard's wife." Penny explained before shaking her head and smiling at that oddity. "You know it still feels weird saying that. Howard's wife… Anyway, no, Sheldon's girlfriend is Amy, she should be here soon."

"Don't worry, she's nowhere near as bad as him." Leonard chimed in, which earned him another dirty look from Sheldon. Gesturing for everyone to sit down he added, "We should start, the food is getting cold."

"Good to know." Aubrey said, moving to sit on the couch, as she processed all the various names. Opting for the corner seat, figuring it would be out of the way, she was about to sit down when a sudden shout stalled her.

"NO, NOT THERE!" Leonard said as she was going for Sheldon's spot. Frantically gesturing for her to move, he explained to the very shocked looks on Aubrey and Chloe's faces, "That's where Sheldon sits."

"I'm sorry." Aubrey said, a bit confused as she moved over to sit on the middle seat. Before she did, though, she paused to look around and see if anyone would object to that. When no one did, she settled onto the cushion.

"It's ok, you're new, you didn't know." Penny said, not giving Sheldon a chance to get worked up. Everyone knew how Sheldon was about his spot, and hoped that the quick move wouldn't get him even more worked up than he already was. Moving to sit on the chair she normally used next to the armchair Leonard was in, Penny accepted her usual order from Leonard with a smile.

Before Chloe could move towards the couch and sit next to Aubrey, Raj took his chance, sliding in beside her and smiling at her. This would be a perfect chance, over dinner, to explain how mysterious and wealthy he was. Taking up a plate of food he turned to the blond astrophysicist and said, "So, Aubrey, tell me… Have you ever been to the mysterious subcontinent of India?"

"Uh… No." Aubrey said after she had a chance to swallow the bit of food she'd just eaten, a confused look on her face. "I mean, I've traveled a lot in Europe, but I haven't had a chance to go to India, or even most of Asia for that matter."

"Well, I don't know if you're aware of this, but did you know that in India we – " Raj started to say, intending to tell the blond girl all about the various exotic things his native land had invented when the apartment door opened once more.

From her seat on the floor, the only one left after Sheldon took his place on the couch, Chloe chuckled to herself as Raj blatantly flirted with Aubrey. She knew that her roommate would shut him down once she realized that that was what the Indian scientist was doing, but for the moment, she just looked confused. As the door opened she turned to look at the newcomer and saw who could only be Amy.

Just a single glance at Amy almost had Chloe sweating. The redhead had chosen to wear only a light sundress and sandals today because June in Southern California was nearly as bad as it had been back in Georgia. Amy, on the other hand, seemed to be wearing at least three layers of clothes and Chloe thought that she must be dying in it.

Amy, for her part, took note of the two new girls sitting in the apartment, and having been warned about their presence by Penny, smiled in greeting. Seeing that the pair was even prettier than had been described to her she let out a sigh of relief before saying, "So you two must be that lesbian couple that lives upstairs?"

"Oh yeah! They're not a couple." Penny supplied, that little bit of information she had gleaned out of them earlier in the day suddenly springing to mind as Amy spoke. With a sheepish grin towards her upstairs neighbors she added, "That was just misreading the situation."

"So I do have a shot!" Raj said happily before again turning to face Aubrey and deciding to go in for the kill. "Did I mention that my family is rich?"

"So is mine, actually." Aubrey said, finally catching on to what Raj had been doing. Deciding to let him down as easy as possibly she added, "Thankfully my trust fund hasn't been cut off yet. Though that may be because I haven't officially come out to my family."

"Awww man, why are all the pretty girls gay?" Raj disappointedly asked, disappointedly as he took another swig of his beer and went back to eating dejectedly.

"Um, I'm not, Bernadette's not, Amy's… Uh, you're not are you?" Penny asked her neurobiologist friend who shook her head no to indicate she wasn't. Smiling and nodding she said, "Yeah she's not. Just because these two, and Beca are, doesn't mean all girls are."

"Well, I'm not, but I might consider it for you, bestie." Amy said with a big smile for Penny. The comment produced a rather uncomfortable silence as everyone processed what the brunette neurobiologist said.

"Actually, I'm not either." Chloe spoke up, trying to break the awkward silence. As everyone's eyes turned to her she shrugged and said, "I'm right in the middle, basically. I think people are people and you love who you love, gender doesn't matter much to me."

"Leonard, don't get any ideas." Penny said quickly before Leonard could open his mouth and say anything. At the seemingly innocent look on his face she pointed an admonitory finger at him for a moment before smiling.

"I didn't say anything, you're the one putting words in my mouth." Leonard said, raising his hands in surrender. Before he could go on to reassure his girlfriend that he had no designs on the new neighbor, Sheldon spoke up.

"So how about instead of all this useless talk about who likes whom and how we take care of something far more important." Sheldon said, irritated at how everything this evening had seemed to conspire against him. Grabbing the remote for the tv he turned it on and clarified, "It' just about time for Titan to start, and since everyone seems to have crashed what was supposed to be Titan-night, it looks like we all will be watching it together."

"Wait, Titan? Isn't that that new sci-fi show on HBO?" Chloe asked as she remembered seeing some article about it back before they graduated. She had remembered thinking at the time that it was a shame that their dorm room didn't get HBO, otherwise she might have started watching it. "I've heard of it, is it any good?"

"It's been enjoyable so far. It's written and created by a couple of fans of Joss Whedon and uses some of the actors he uses, as well as the woman who played Sarah on Chuck." Leonard supplied. Being slightly vague on the actual names, since he doubted the two girls would recognize them if he had mentioned them.

"It's not the same as what would have been Firefly season 10 nor Serenity 2, but since Hollywood prefers to make an infinite amount of sequels about a bunch of Neanderthals driving cars really fast and 'found footage' horror films purportedly showing activity that is supposedly paranormal, you've got to take what you can get." Sheldon offered, heaping scorn on the normal trash that Hollywood put out. "It actually has a slightly original concept and holds fairly well to most concepts of physics as we know them, so it gets my approval."

"Yes, yes it's good. There's no need for your usual tirade on the state of television and movies today." Leonard summed up, rolling his eyes at his roommate's over elaborate explanation. While Sheldon spluttered over the word "tirade", Leonard continued, "This episode is supposed to color the universe in some, if you're familiar with Babylon 5, it's along the same lines as a few of the episodes they did. It's being presented as a show within a show, in this case it's two late night news/comedy show similar to something like 'The Colbert Report' or 'The Daily Show', only set in the show's universe."

"Don't worry, the show is much better than Babylon 5." Sheldon spoke up at the mention of the show he knew Leonard liked but he couldn't stand.

"We're the guests, whatever you guys want." Aubrey said, exchanging glances with Chloe who shrugged before nodding. Aubrey had also heard of the show and had thought to check out episodes of it, but between graduating and moving across the country she simply hadn't had the time yet.

"Fine, be that way. But next 'Anything Can Happen Thursday', Amy and I get to choose what we do." Penny spoke up as it appeared that they would in fact be watching the sci-fi show. Hoping she wouldn't be too bored, the blond waitress went back to eating her food.

"You don't know that, ANYTHING can happen, remember. That's the whole point. We could do what you and Amy want, we could have unwelcome strangers invade our homes, hell, we could even eat bark…" Sheldon said as the intro for one of the shows within the show started playing. As the fake announcer gave the date and the host started telling the "inter-stellar audience" about the events occurring prior to "today's episode", everyone in the apartment in Pasadena was able to hear noises drifting in through the closed door, getting louder as the speakers came up the stairs.

"Well, I'm not really gay or anything like that, but I've never been with a girl, so figured why not give it a try. I keep seeing you at the club, and you're so beautiful that, well, I couldn't resist asking you any longer." A girl's voice said as two pairs of footsteps finally got up to the landing outside the boy's apartment. "I just love being able to go to the club. I just graduated high school and don't start college for a few months, so I don't have a lot to do other than watch my Uncle Mitchell's daughter Lily so he and his partner Cam can go out and do whatever it is they do…" The voice trailed off as they started up the next set of stairs.

"Hmmm, sounds like Beca found a friend to bring home." Penny said after the voices quieted down.

"Rats! No doubt that means she will be turning on her infernal music…" Sheldon complained grumpily, knowing that they soon might not be able to hear the episode. "She better not ruin this episode."

"Well, it is 'Anything Can Happen' Thursday, apparently that's what is going to happen now…" Leonard said with a grin.

"Does, uh… Does she do that a lot?" Chloe asked, gesturing towards the upstairs apartment as they heard the door upstairs open and close.

"Often enough! Though, I guess in retrospect, not as often as Penny used to prior to her current arrangement with Leonard…" Sheldon said, pausing the episode since everyone seemed bound and determined to talk over the show with no regards for his preference.

"Hey!" Penny said, outraged at the accusation. "It wasn't that often… I mean, well, not really…"

"I've done the math, Penny. Do I need to get my board and go over it for you again?" Sheldon asked, starting to stand up to do just that.

"No, no… I just… Fine." Penny said, conceding the point to avoid another lesson is math from the exceedingly condescending man. Turning back to Chloe in order to help divert attention off her escapades she said, "In all honesty, Beca doesn't do that a lot. I mean, I can probably count on a single hand the number of times I've heard that happen in the year she's been here."

"Oh, then, uh, why are you so upset about it, Dr. Cooper?" Chloe asked, innocently. Of course, unknowingly the redhead had opened a can of worms and everyone else, aside from Aubrey, knew it.

"No!" Penny, Raj and Leonard cried out in an effort to stop the question.

"Why would you do that? Oh god…" Leonard said after their efforts proved fruitless. Getting up from his chair he moved to the kitchen to get another drink, dreading the incoming rant.

"Why? Why you ask? Let me tell you why. First off, she stomps around upstairs at all hours of the night in those monstrous boots she wears. Back and forth, back and forth, like an infantry soldier marching on parade. Then there's the music. Who plays music so loud at three in the morning that it causes windows to rattle, I ask you? And right above my room!" Sheldon complains loudly emphasizing each point as his friends just cringe and shake their heads.

"Uh… The worst kind of villain?" Chloe supplies, unsure how to really answer, but knowing that it would probably finish the rant sooner if she just agreed with the doctor. So far she hadn't heard anything worth complaining about coming from the apartment across the hall from hers. In fact, she'd quite liked the few snippets of music that she had heard.

"Exactly! I think we ought to petition the landlord. I'm fairly sure that she's violating some of the residency codes of the state of California, I just haven't yet had a chance to research which one. I'm sure you'll sign the petition when I have it ready, right?" Sheldon asked, looking around the room. Most of the others simply avoided his gaze, but Chloe couldn't and gave a small jerk of her head that he took to be agreement.

"Excellent. Well, let's try and finish this episode before she turns on that infernal racket…" Sheldon continued, unpausing the episode so that they could continue watching it.

* * *

June faded into July with a delicious slowness that Chloe had never really appreciated before. For the last four years the summer months had always found Chloe either relaxing at home in Atlanta with her family, or taking trips to visit Aubrey's place in upstate New York. The pair of girls were inseparable even during the months of "vacation" they had from Barden. Of course, this year as July rolled around, there was a bittersweet feeling to things as, for the first time in four years, Chloe and Aubrey would be missing the big family cookout for the Fourth.

Chloe did her best to comfort her friend in the week and a half following their spur of the moment invitation to join "Anything Can Happen" Thursday down with the guys down in 4A and their friends. Well, she tried, at any rate. Her heart wasn't really in it, and the redhead knew that her best friend could tell but let things slide. However, after the dinner party Chloe was bound and determined now to meet their next door neighbor. She had subtly tried to work the conversation around to Beca occasionally throughout the dinner with varying degrees of success. Penny seemed to have caught on to the tactic, as at one point towards the end of the episode she had raised an eyebrow quizzically at her, but the waitress had let the matter drop without comment. The boys, however, seemed fairly oblivious to what the redhead was doing as she tried to fish out information regarding the mysterious brunette. Aubrey, of course, knew exactly what Chloe was trying to do and had given the redhead a piece of her mind about it later when the two were up in their apartment.

Chloe wasn't sure why she was becoming so obsessed over the girl, however. And that made the argument she'd had with Bree that night more difficult to bear, because she couldn't rightly defend her position. And, Aubrey being Aubrey, had picked Chloe's arguments that "she's hot" and "I don't know, Bree, I just wanna meet her" to pieces in short order. Eventually though, thankfully, the blond had dropped the matter, because she knew how Chloe loved solving a mystery. And, in all fairness, Chloe felt that Aubrey was a bit curious about her too.

Chloe wasn't sure, but she thought that maybe that was because of the music that they had occasionally heard playing from the brunette's apartment in the few weeks that they had been living across the hall from her. In fact, the Saturday following their dinner with the crew, Chloe saw her roommate bobbing her head appreciatively to the song coming out of the 5A as the pair walked home with their groceries that afternoon. Naturally when Aubrey saw her looking she stopped immediately, but Chloe knew what she had seen. Of course, Chloe couldn't really blame Bree for it, their neighbor was playing one of DJ 22's most recent Youtube creations that had just been posted to the artist's channel. After all the help that the anonymous DJ had given to the Bellas, and in particular to Chloe and Aubrey only a few short months ago, the redhead knew that her roommate had a soft spot for the artist's music, and had started stalking their Youtube channel.

Chloe couldn't really blame her, though. Whoever the anonymous "DJ 22" was, Chloe knew that they made amazing music and couldn't fault Bree's tastes in music. Especially considering that subscribing to someone's Youtube channel was a bit less stalker-ish than some things that she herself might have been getting up to over the last few days. Or, you know, maybe a week… Or like ten days. But who was counting?!

Chloe had made it her mission since the party, and most especially since Saturday, to meet this girl with amazing musical taste. If nothing else she wanted to know her neighbors, damnit! And so, well, the redhead might have been ACTUALLY stalking her neighbor for, like, a week and a half… Nothing creepy about that, right?

Aubrey certainly felt that there was, but since nothing had come of it, Chloe was still bound and determined to keep it up. Whoever the mysterious "Beca" was, she sure kept odd hours. Chloe had been making sure to linger on the stairs as much as possible, and she would leap up from whatever she was doing anytime she heard anything from the hallway. Sadly it was usually just sound carrying up from the lower floors, or at best a possible door closing across the hall with no sign of the neighbor.

Aubrey must have reached her breaking point with everything early on Saturday evening as they both heard a door slam and Chloe had come running from her bedroom, and in the process nearly tripped over some of Aubrey's that equipment the blond had left laying by the door. It was all in preparation for their stargazing that they had planned for that Saturday night, the blond had confronted her about nearly breaking her very, very expensive telescope.

"Jesus, Chlo! Be careful with that! Would you just go over there and knock on her door already? Introduce yourself. You've never had a problem doing that before, remember during our junior year when we had been moved to the upperclassmen dorms and you literally went door-to-door down the hall saying hi to everyone? What's wrong this time?" The blond had asked, after she had finished laughing so hard she had nearly spit her juice out across the living room.

Chloe had just mumbled a non-committal response, however, because she didn't want to admit that she had actually tried just that like three times already that week. To no avail, sadly. The first time she had approached the brunette's door and boldly knocked on it had been on Monday, but she hadn't gotten a response after ten minutes. The second time she had been raising her hand to knock when she heard something odd coming from inside the apartment. That was Wednesday night when she was coming home with food for her and Aubrey, and unknown to the blond for Beca as well. Thinking that the brunette might be having another "friend" over, Chloe had started to turn and walk quickly back towards her apartment when the true nature of the sounds became apparent to her.

It was the shower, and more importantly, a voice singing from said shower. Between the walls separating the shower from the front door and the sound of the water running Chloe couldn't figure out what song, she assumed, the brunette was singing, but it didn't sound half bad. They had had a lot of leftover Thai food that night and Aubrey had teased Chloe about how her eyes were always bigger than her stomach, especially when the redhead was ordering Thai food. Of course, Chloe didn't mention that she had been intending to invite Beca over because she knew that the blond would just scoff and harass her about it.

And that wasn't the first, or last, time that she'd heard singing coming from the apartment either. And that fact alone intrigued Chloe nearly as much as everything else she'd learned about Beca to this point, which admittedly was very little. On at least three other occasions when she was either walking past the brunette's apartment or "stalking" the hallways for her, she had heard the very distinctive alto tone of singing coming from somewhere in the building. And what was driving her nuts was that she hadn't been able to track it down. She had nearly opened the broken down elevator to see if the brunette was hiding inside there just to taunt her… But she hadn't, yet.

The most recent failed attempt at blatant door-knocking had been the most unusual, to Chloe's mind. All week long she had found herself obsessing over their neighbor who sang, had great taste in music, and kept some of the oddest hours that the redhead could think of. The girl who could, with a few simple acts, so masterfully piss off Sheldon; everyone had been treated to another rant on his upstairs neighbor on Thursday at this week's "Titan Night".

And that was how Chloe had found herself outside Beca's door the follow evening trying to work up the courage to knock and invite the brunette over to her place for a movie night with Aubrey. Chloe had been standing in front of the door for something like ten minutes and hadn't managed to work out what to say AFTER she knocked. And that had Chloe absolutely stumped because she was usually the girl who said whatever was on her mind, no matter how inappropriate.

"Are you ready, Chloe? I think I have everything now, and if we don't get up there soon we're going to miss Mercury." Aubrey's voice broke through Chloe's thoughts, bringing her back to reality.

"What? Oh, uh, yeah. I'm ready if you are, Bree." Chloe said, shaking her head and standing up from the couch. Ever since she had nearly broken Aubrey's telescope earlier that evening, Chloe had planted herself on the couch as Aubrey finished getting her stuff ready.

Chloe had planned this, well she had brought up the idea to Aubrey who had planned it, last Friday. That was the day that they had been scheduled to fly back to New York for the Pig Roast, and Chloe could tell that her friend was still upset over being, essentially, disinvited from the event. So Chloe had proposed something that she knew was guaranteed to lift the blond's spirits. A night of stargazing from their building's rooftop. The redhead had been hoping for something sooner, but it had been fairly cloudy for most of the last week and so that's how Chloe found herself giving up a Saturday night, and no doubt well into Sunday morning, to look through a telescope with her friend.

"I'd say to get your head out of the clouds, Chlo, but thankfully there aren't any out there tonight so… Are you still upset because I yelled at you earlier? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. You know how I get about my telescope." Aubrey said, walking over and putting her arm around the redhead.

"No, no Bree, it's ok. I should have been more careful. And it's not that, I was just… thinking." Chloe said, and with the slightest glance towards the door betrayed herself.

"About that 'alt girl' again? Sheesh, Chloe, if you actually interacted with her more than that brief glimpse when we were moving in I'd say you have a toner for her. Come on, let's go upstairs and distract ourselves." Bree said, shaking her head at Chloe briefly before walking over and picking up the telescope.

"I just… I'm curious about her, that's all." Chloe said, following after the blond to grab the two folding chairs that they were taking up along with the rest of the stuff to entertain themselves for however many hours this might last.

"I know, I know. I don't get it, Chlo, but I know. Come on, tonight should be fun, there's a lot going on. Based on my calculations Mercury should be up by now, it's in a crescent phase at the moment, so that's neat. Then later on Saturn and Mars will be out. I think, if we're lucky, we might even be able to see Titan, the moon of Saturn that the ship on the show is named after." Aubrey explained as she carried her scope carefully up the stairs. Opening the door to the roof she went on, "And if we really want to make a night of it, around 5 or so Jupiter, Venus, and the Pleiades Cluster will be up… I'm not sure if the conditions will allow for the Pleiades, though. That one's tough in a city, but we can try."

"Sounds awesome, Bree." Chloe said, setting the stuff she was carrying down and starting to unpack the chairs as the blond found the best spot for the telescope.

The redhead knew that she was in for a long night as Bree hadn't had a chance to really set her telescope up since they had moved to LA. Of course, that was why this had been such a good idea to get the blond out of the funk she had been in, Chloe knew. She just wasn't as into stargazing as her friend was. It was cool and all, but there were other things that Chloe would rather be doing on a Saturday night, like dancing and singing. Still, when your friend is sad, you make sacrifices. So Chloe resolved to perk up and try and have fun.

"So, you think we'll be able to see Titan tonight?" The redhead asked. A long night indeed…

Hours later Chloe was standing by her earlier observation. Granted seeing Mercury was pretty cool. And Saturn's rings were pretty awesome. Bree had brought her camera up and gotten a few pictures of those. Titan was pretty cool too, but Bree had basically just been watching stars for the last hour, and Chloe was really starting to get bored. She had promised herself, though, that she'd at least stick it out until Venus and Jupiter came up, but that was still another two hours off if the blond's calculations were right. And Chloe knew that they would be, so the redhead was trying to not fall asleep in the meantime. When her stomach rumbled loudly she got an idea on a way to help pass some time.

"Hey Bree… Whatcha think about taking a break? I don't know about you, but I'm hungry and could really use a bathroom break." The redhead spoke up.

Standing from where she had been bending over the telescope making a few adjustments, Aubrey cracked her back and stretched a bit before answering. "You know, Chlo, that's actually a good idea. We got a little while before Jupiter rises, and I think that one of those pepperoni pizzas from the freezer will quiet you down so I can concentrate a bit…"

"Hey! My tummy isn't that loud!" Chloe protested, whacking her roommate's arm playfully as the blond laughed.

"Yeah, then I wonder why I got so startled a minute ago that I totally misaligned the scope…" Aubrey asked with a laugh as they started down the stairs.

"Hey! I can't help it if you don't know how to operate a telescope and are just trying to blame it on me and my poor, nearly silent tummy that desperately wants food." Chloe said with a smile.

"Yeah, keep thinking that Chlo, delusions are a good thing in actresses, right?" The blond managed to say while laughing. Opening the door to their apartment Aubrey motioned Chloe towards the kitchen as the blond started to head towards the bathroom, saying, "How about you start the food? I gotta use the bathroom real fast."

"Sure, sure. Just for that, though, I'm putting pineapple on it!" Chloe said, knowing that Aubrey wasn't a huge fan of fruit on her pizza. After pulling the frozen pizza from the freeze, Chloe added some of the diced pineapple she just happened to have bought a couple days earlier, and added a healthy measure to the pizza before putting it into the oven. As she was cleaning up the pineapple juice and eating the last couple pieces she heard Aubrey trip and stumble over something as the blond left the bathroom. Poking her head down the hall, Chloe saw that it was her very full laundry basket. Receiving a glare from her roommate, Chloe tried to look innocent as the blond spoke.

"Jesus Chlo, would you just do your laundry already?" Aubrey asked as she picked up the clothes she'd knocked over and added them to heaping pile currently filling the redhead's laundry basket. "I mean, I know you want to meet alt-girl, but this is getting ridiculous. You're resorting to stalking her in the laundry room now?"

"What do you have against her anyway?" Chloe asked, raising an eyebrow, choosing not to answer the question because she was really starting to get desperate.

"Nothing so far, I'm just a little concerned about what you're doing." Aubrey said, carrying the full basket into the living room and indicating the weeks' worth of clothes that the redhead had been refusing to wash until she heard Beca heading downstairs. "You haven't done laundry all week, Chlo, and it's starting to get a bit ridiculous. You never even got like this with Tom."

"We both know Tom was never anything more than a warm body to keep me from getting cold some nights." Chloe said, referring to her on again, off again boy toy from college. "Beca's different… I don't know, she has great taste in music. I think we could become good friends."

"You sure there isn't more to it than that, Chlo? What was it you said when we first saw her…? Oh yeah, 'Ooooh! Hot neighbor' I think it was." Aubrey said, looking her best friend in the face she added in a quiet voice, "Like Jan looks out for me, I look out for you. It's what big sisters do."

"You're barely two months older than I am." Chloe said, but she couldn't help the sappy grin that spread on her face at the words.

"It still counts." Aubrey said as Chloe walked over and wrapped her up into one of the redhead's signature hugs. Once Chloe let her go she said, "We've still got like, 15 minutes left on the pizza, how about you go and start a load of wash. You can meet 'alt girl' another time, I'm sure."

"What would I do without you sis?" Chloe teased, before nodding her agreement. Bending down the redhead picked up the basket and said, "Don't let the pizza burn, ok? At this time I bet no one is using the machines, so I can probably do it all in one go."

"I'm not sure I want to know, but I expect the results would be disastrous." Aubrey said. "Go start your wash. We can eat while it's finishing then you should be able to swap it to the drier before we head back upstairs."

"Thanks Bree." Chloe said as she picked up her basket again and headed for the door. Stopping with it half-opened she turned back and said, "Oh, and just because I love you so much, I only put pineapple on half!"

The blond's thanks drifted to her as she turned and headed out the door. Carrying her basket carefully, it really was quite full, Chloe quietly walked downstairs to the laundry room, trying to avoid waking up any of their neighbors as she descended to the basement. As she was walking down the stairs into the basement she heard an all-too-familiar voice singing a song, a song she knew only too well. Basket in hand she quickly moved into the laundry room to find a certain brunette folding some clothes and singing softly. Unable to contain her excitement at finally seeing Beca in person the first thought in her mind burst to the forefront, "You can sing!"

"DUDE!" Beca called out, dropping the shirt she had been folding and jumping about five feet into the air at the same time. Putting a hand to her chest to still the mile-a-minute beat her heart had started she asked, "What the hell are you doing up at 3 AM?"

"My roommate likes to stargaze and I was helping her." Chloe said with a shrug. Rushing fully into the room and putting her laundry basket down on the table beside the brunette Chloe turned to face her as she asked, "You were singing Titanium right?"

"Uh… Yeah. You, uh, you know David Guetta?" Beca asked, a bit overwhelmed by the rambunctious redhead who had suddenly barged into the laundry room. Picking up the shirt she had been in the process of folding she held it in front herself, slightly defensively as the redhead spoke.

"Duh! Have I been living under a rock? Yeah!" Chloe said, taking another step closer to the girl, totally oblivious to the obvious awkwardness that Beca was feeling at having Chloe standing now only a bare foot away from her. "That song is my jam. My lady jam…"

Chloe wanted to take the words back even as she spoke them. Chloe had always been carefree and easy going with strangers, never really one to beat around the bush, this was a little different. Telling a complete stranger that the song she was singing was one she had gotten intimate with herself while listening to was another story.

"Oh, uh, ok. That's nice…" Beca said awkwardly, still refusing to take step away from the weird redhead. She had seen her and her roommate from time to time around the building, but being her usual loner self, had always avoided the pair. Now that she knew how crazy the redhead was, maybe her choice to avoid them was a good one.

"It is. That song really builds." Chloe said, her mind apparently no longer having any control over her vocal cords. Sleep deprivation, that's what this was, and it was all Aubrey's fault.

"Ummm, alrighty then." Beca said, obviously unsure what to make of the admission she'd just heard.

"Anyway, I'm Chloe. Chloe Beale. I live across the hall from you, in 5B." Chloe said, finally reigning herself in and taking a step back.

"Beca." The brunette answered curtly. Taking a breath now that the weird redhead had stepped away from her.

"You should totally sing it with me, though. This room seems to have great acoustics. I know, I've performed a few solo acts in here over the last couple weeks." Chloe said looking around the room. When her gaze fell on the brunette, who was smirking at her with a raised eyebrow she blushed at the comment she'd just made. "I mean, solo singing acts. Singing by myself, while doing laundry. I, uh, I used to be in an a capella group. Back in college with my roommate, Aubrey."

"Oh yeah, that's like a thing now, isn't it?" Beca asked, a smirk finding its way onto her face as she thought about the redhead in front of her and her blond roommate prancing around on stage singing a capella.

"Oh, totes! We used to sing covers of all kinds of songs. But we did it without any instruments. It was all with our mouths." Chloe replied, excited to talk about a capella. Her time at Barden had been thoroughly marked and definitely made better by her time in Bellas, and she was still in love with the group, despite being thousands of miles from them. Smiling brightly Chloe moved away from Beca to put her laundry basket on top of one of the washing machines and started unloading her clothes as she went on, "We were part of the Barden Bellas, from Barden University in Atlanta. We were the tits, it was aca-awesome."

"If you say so…" Beca said a bit sarcastically as she went back to folding the last of her clothes. When the redhead didn't reply Beca turned to face her and saw the look of surprise on Chloe's face. Elaborating she said, "I mean, it's kinda lame, isn't it? Like a college fad…"

"I can't believe you just said that. A capella is so not lame. We used to perform all over the world. We even competed in national championships." Chloe said heatedly as she defended her time in the Bellas.

"On purpose?" Beca asked incredulously. At the hurt look on Chloe's face, the brunette realized that was being really rude and tried to come up with something positive to say. "I mean, uh, did you guys win anything big? Maybe I could, I dunno, watch a YouTube video of it or something…"

"Uh, oh. Ummm, no. We, well, we almost won, last year. But, we just seemed to be missing something, some spark… Anyway, I wouldn't search YouTube, there's probably nothing there anyway. But there was this one time where we sang backup for Prince, it was pretty cool. His butt is so small that I could, like, hold it in one hand." Chloe said, quickly trying to deflect the brunette away from the sensitive topic of Nationals and hoping that she could help that awful video of Aubrey vomiting all over the stage at the previous year's competition from getting any more hits that it already had.

"Oh, well, that's too bad." Beca said, folding the last of her clothes before turning to bid the redhead a goodnight. "It was, uh, nice to meet you Chloe Beale. I'm sure we'll see each other around. Keep listening to David Guetta, he has some other awesome songs too…"

"Oooh! Before you go, can I, uh, hear you singing that again? You sounded really awesome, but it was muffled and stuff…" Chloe asked, moving away from the washing machine to intercept the brunette before she could make a break for it.

"Ummm, I dunno. It's late, and everything, and I don't really sing that well…" Beca asked, trying to find a way around the redhead who was now blocking the exit so she could leave the laundry room and get back to the shelter of her apartment.

"I call BS on that, missy. I won't let you leave till you sing with me…" Chloe said, firmly planting herself in the doorway. When Beca still looked reluctant she put on her best "puppy dog" face and said, "Come on, just this once… Please?"

Beca realized that the redhead wasn't going to budge, and frantically searched for a different way out of the situation. She had been trying to avoid just these sorts of entanglements since she had come to LA. She needed to make it big, and to do that she had to be focused. No girlfriends, no distractions, and definitely no nosy redheads getting her all out of whack. As her eyes landed on Chloe, however, with the most epic puppy dog pout that she had ever seen, Beca felt herself caving and finally gave in with a sigh.

"Fine, but don't expect this every time we do laundry!" Beca said, capitulating to the redhead's pout, which brought a gleeful shout and an awkward hug around Beca's laundry basket. Pushing the redhead's arms away she put her basket down onto the table and started to sing the chorus of "Titanium". She had always been fairly comfortable with her singing, despite what she had told Chloe, even going so far as to rerecord some of the audio for a few of her mixes with her own voice doing the vocals, but she was astonished when after only a single line the redhead started singing along with her.

Beca almost stopped singing when Chloe started, her voice was amazing. And the way she managed to harmonize their two ranges, Chloe obviously being a high soprano to Beca's alto, was simply incredible. By the time the pair had finished the chorus Beca was absolutely enthralled, and she could tell that Chloe was loving having the chance to sing. As their last notes echoed pleasantly through the room Beca had to admit that the redhead was right, the acoustics in here were pretty fucking amazing.

Smiling at the redhead, Beca couldn't believe what she had just done. Singing in a laundry room with a complete stranger at 3 in the morning was definitely the last thing she had expected when she had gotten up today. But when Chloe smiled back, a mischievous little grin that shot through her like a lightning bolt, the brunette suddenly remembered her promise to herself about avoiding entanglements. Turning away quickly she picked up her laundry basket and, on seeing Chloe still standing in the doorway, obviously a little dazed as well by their little duet, she said, "Ummm, think I can…?"

Shaking her head a little, Chloe remembered suddenly that she was standing in the doorway and refusing to let Beca leave. She had to put a serious mental block on not gushing over how amazing they had sounded together and instead said, "Uh, yeah. That was great, Becs. You have an amazing voice. We should do this more…"

"Singing in the laundry room? I don't think so… Remember, I said this was a one-time thing." Beca said, fixing her smirk firmly back in place as the redhead moved out of the doorway to let her pass.

"No, not that. I mean, that would be awesome, but we wouldn't have to do it here in the laundry room. I meant, like, hanging out. We are neighbors after all." Chloe said, swatting the brunette's arm as she passed her, heading back to get her own laundry started.

"Oh, uh… Sure. We'll chat about it. Anyway, I'm tired so…" Beca said, having a bit of a mental breakdown as she stared at the smile that Chloe was giving her and cursing herself for agreeing to it. She didn't have time for friends. She needed to pay her dues, damnit, not make friends with bubbly redheads…

"Aca-awesome! Have a goodnight, Becs! Sweet dreams!" Chloe said, smiling brightly even as the other girl mumbled something that sounded vaguely like "good night" before turning and rushing from the room.

Without a brunette to distract her, Chloe quickly had her laundry started and was hurrying back upstairs to tell Aubrey all about how her stalking had finally paid off. Bursting through the door to their apartment she saw that Aubrey was already eating… And had been for quite a while considering that half the pizza was basically gone already.

"Jesus Christ, Chlo. I was about to send a search party down there for you. You somehow get lost going down six flights of stairs?" Aubrey asked as the redhead shut the door behind her. She eyed her friend quizzically as Chloe literally bounced her way across the room with possibly the biggest smile on her face that Aubrey had ever seen.

"Oh. My. GOD! BREE!" Chloe squealed delightedly before remembering how thin the walls in the building were and taking her volume down several notches. "Oh my god, Bree! I met her, and she's amazing! She has the most amazing singing voice I've ever heard! Shame we couldn't have had her on the Bellas, we'd have won for sure!"

"Wait, 'met her' who? And why were you singing with anyone? I thought you were just going to do laundry…" Aubrey said, more than a little confused as Chloe wiggled with excitement.

"Beca! I met Beca down in the laundry room. It was, like, fate or something! Anyway, she's totally cool, though she thinks a capella is lame, but she was singing 'Titanium' and you know, that song is my…" Chloe said, too excited and wired up to sit down.

"That song is your lady jam. Please tell me you didn't tell her that…" Aubrey said, more familiar with that song than she'd care to admit. When the redhead just blushed and finally took a seat opposite her, Aubrey said, "Oh my god! Chloe, for serious, do you have like no filter at all? You can't go around telling strangers that you masturbate to that song. It's creepy!"

"Beca didn't think so!" Chloe lied. "She even sang some of it with me. And, like I said, amazing voice! We're gonna be the best of friends, I can tell it already."

"Hmph! Well, as long as you confine your 'duets' to her apartment I'm fine with that. Now hurry up and eat or we'll be missing Jupiter, Beale." Aubrey said, pointing to the luke warm pizza sitting on the table covered in pineapple.


	4. The Distraction Conundrum

**A/N:** Not much to say for this one aside from the usual. Please take a few moments after you've read it to leave a review, Zap and I quite literally count them up as they come in, it's kind of amusiing actually. Also, for those of you who are waiting for the final install of my other fic Holiday Happenings, I promise that the Christmas installment won't go past 6 1/2 months over due... Unless Zap murders me for making everyone wait for so long on that chapter. And now, on to the chapter!

* * *

**The Distraction Conundrum**

Beca sat in front of her computer staring at the monitor. Her mixing software was open and she was searching for a song to pair with Call Me Maybe. Her Aunt Tricia had sent her a link to the video of the Olympic swim team lip synching to it, and she hadn't been able to get it out of her head since, so she figured why not put it to some decent use. The tune was poppy and catchy, though not really her style, but it was one of those songs that got people up and dancing. And, considering that was her job now, she figured she might as well do a good job of it.

Of course, there was a part of her that couldn't help but think how perfectly the song fit her own life right now, considering how the last few weeks since her impromptu duet with the redhead that lived across the hall had gone. Ever since that night, Chloe seemed to continually find reasons to visit her. The Sunday following their meeting had been an invitation to join the redhead and her roommate for dinner, and after that things just kept coming. Rubbing her temples wearily, Beca couldn't help but think back over the previous year and how she had been so successful in avoiding getting caught up in the life, and the distractions, of the building.

As soon as her mom had returned to Seattle, Beca set to work fulfilling her end of the deal. One of the first things she had known she would need to do was to find a job so that she could afford to try and live her dream. Her first thought had been to do something music related if possible, but being only 18 years old limited the sort of work that she could in clubs or bars if she wasn't the actual DJ. She had some experience waitressing from her high school days, so it hadn't been too hard for her to find a job in a small diner not far from her building. She knew from experience that working at a small 'mom & pop' type diner would be far better than getting a job at a large corporate entity like "The Cheesecake Factory" where she knew that Penny worked. Besides, if she got a job there she would have to interact with the blond girl, and Beca wanted to focus on her music, not making friends out of her neighbors. Friends could come once she had gotten her break as a DJ.

The diner wasn't anything spectacular, but it did a steady enough business that she was able to get by with her wage plus tips. Unfortunately, to do so meant not having as much time as she would have liked to mix and try to get noticed. Beca did her best, though, mixing late into the night and working the following day in a sleepy haze. She sent her mixes to various radio stations and record labels, and was hopeful at first. When no responses came back, however, Beca realized that breaking into the music scene by going directly to the record labels might be the wrong to go about it. However with the amount of hours she had to put in at the diner to pay her bills, the aspiring DJ found it nearly impossible to try and get in at a local club where she could show off her DJing skills.

Beca knew that all she needed was a chance to show off what she was capable of at a club, preferably a newer one where they didn't have an established DJ already on staff, and then she'd be set. But with the crazy hours she was being forced to work just to pay her rent, the brunette still a little bit shell shocked at the whole "moving out" experience, Beca barely had time to mix music, let alone pimp herself to clubs. Thankfully an unexpected break came only a few months after her move. And it came in the shape her an unexpected visit from her mother.

* * *

_1:45 PM_

_That was the time that the clock on her laptop said it was. Beca knew this because she had been staring blankly at it since it had said 1:40 PM. Shaking her head to clear the lack-of-sleep induced cobwebs Beca tried to focus on the tracks she was working on. She wasn't even really sure how they had come into her mind as "good ideas" for a mashup, but it was proving harder than her brain had suggested. Though that could have been because she had only had about 4 hours sleep the previous night._

_One of the other waitresses at the diner had called out sick the previous day, which meant that Beca's 8-hour day turned into nearly sixteen by the time the diner was closed up at 4 AM and everything was clean. By the time she was home and showered, Beca had always found that going to sleep after working a shift at the diner without a shower meant she woke up smelling like diner food and that usually made her want to throw up, it was nearly 5. And her alarm was set to go off in 6 hours. Brilliant._

_Of course, just because she was IN bed didn't meant that she could actually fall asleep. No, no, that would make things too easy. So yeah, combine a good dose of insomnia with the already short sleeping schedule she had, and noon had come far too early, even with the extra hour she had given herself. But she had mixes to make. If she was going to prove herself she had to work with current music. She had to be bold and put herself out there as her dad had always said. She had to get noticed._

_1:50 PM_

Fuck!_ Beca thought as she realized that both the songs had played through their full length and she hadn't taken in a single note. It was pointless, she was never going to get any work done in this state. She didn't have to be at work until 5 that night, thank goodness, so just as she was contemplating giving the whole idea of mixing up as a bad job and trying to salvage a couple more hours of sleep she heard a knock on her door that startled her so much she nearly fell out of her chair._

_Who the hell would be knocking on her door? At 1:50 on a Friday, no less. She didn't really know anyone in LA, unless you counted her co-workers, but none of them knew where she lived. Well, there were the other people that lived in the building, but she generally avoided them and they'd have no reason to visit her… Wouldn't they? _

_Quietly making her way to the door, in case she wanted to pretend to not be home in case it was Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses, Beca carefully peaked through the peephole into the hallway. With a gasp she stepped back and started opening the locks on the door as she called out, "Umm, wow. Uh, hang on mom. Gimme just a … Got it."_

_Opening the door she was shocked to see her mom standing in front of her door with an amused smirk on her face. As the older version of Beca stepped forward to give her daughter a hug she said, "I heard you sneaking up to the door. Worried I was a bible thumper or something?"_

"_Hell yeah I was! I don't know how, but somehow they got into the building like a week ago and I made the mistake of answering the door." Beca replied, tolerating the hug from her mom before stepping back and letting the older woman through the door. As she shut it behind her she went on, "They spent like 15 minutes trying to get inside so they could 'show me the light of Jesus' or some crap. At about that point in time I told them I liked pussy more than they did and they freaked the fuck out long enough for me to slam the door in their faces."_

"_Oh my god, you didn't really, did you? No, wait, I don't even need you to answer that, I know you did. I'm sure the looks on their faces were comical to say the least." Beth said, laughing so hard she nearly doubled over at her daughter's tale. After catching her breath she stood up and tried to give her best "mom" look as she said, "Still, crude as ever though, I see…"_

"_And never gonna change it either!" Beca said proudly as she saved the miserable excuse for a mashup she was working on. As she did so she suddenly had a thought and asked the question on her mind, "Speaking of locked front doors, how did you get in without buzzing up?"_

"_Oh that nice waitress girl, Jenny, Annie… Something like that. Anyway, she was just heading out to work, judging by her uniform, and held the door for me." Beth said, gesturing vaguely downstairs._

"_Penny, mom. Her name's Penny. And that's cool, but, uh, what are you doing in LA?" Beca asked, straightening from her task and cracking her back._

"_Well, I had a conference on automated AI design and integration this weekend and I decided to come down early and surprise you for lunch. Assuming you haven't eaten yet?" Her mom asked, pulling out her cell phone and checking the time._

"_No, actually I haven't eaten yet, and I would love something other than diner food for a change!" Beca said, delighted to have a chance to get some food other than what her own work made. It was hard to beat the discount on food she got at work, and she never had time to really cook anyway so…_

"_Diner food?" Beth asked, confused._

"_Oh, uh, yeah. I guess I never mentioned that. I, uh, work down the street at M&T's diner. Gotta pay the bills, right?" Beca said rather sheepishly, more ashamed than she'd like to admit that she had to tell her mom that her "big dream" to come to LA and become a music producer had stalled with her working as a waitress._

"_You're waitressing again? Oh, Becs. Why didn't you say something? I'm sure your dad and I could have – " Beth started to say before Beca cut her off._

"_No! No mom, I can do this. I just… I just need some time, to get noticed, you know? I don't need anyone's help." Beca protested, instantly cutting her mom off before she could offer to help. She had already been tempted to ask for help a couple weeks ago when she had eaten her fifth meal of Top Ramen in a row, but she hadn't broken down then, and she wouldn't now._

"_Baby, come on…" Beth started to protest, but at the look in her daughter's eyes, a look she had seen staring back at her in the mirror after someone had told her that "girls couldn't become computer programmers" when she was in school, she knew that there was no point._

"_No means no, mom. Isn't that what you told me to tell people down here if they tried to get too pushy?" Beca said with a smirk on her face._

_Rolling her eyes, Beth just smacked her daughter's arm and told her to go get dressed and they could go get some "real food". The younger brunette did so, coming back a few minutes later in her typical pair of dark jeans and low-cut top covered with a hooded sweatshirt. As they were making their way towards the door, though, Beca spoke up again._

"_Ummmm, we'll have to make it quick, though. I, well, I gotta work a shift at the diner tonight. In about three hours to be precise." Beca said nervously, she was about to suggest that they reschedule for the following day which she had, somehow, miraculously gotten off work, when her stomach rumbled loudly._

"_Alright, lunch on the quick. Let's do this." Beth said, leading the way out of the apartment as Beca locked the door. Despite the young brunette's protest, though, Beth was already planning to call Chris and talk to him about maybe helping their daughter out a bit. I mean, if she had gone to Barden University as he had wanted she would have had her room paid for her, at the least. So it was, really, the least that they could to do help her out with food and rent, Beth figured._

* * *

Shaking off the months old memory Beca looked back at her screen, once again searching for a song to pair up with that infernally catchy tune. Beca had to admit, as much as she usually disliked that sort of pop music, she found it hilarious that the boy that Carly was singing to turned out to be gay and interested in her band's guitarist.

About a week after that weekend both her parents had called her up and talked to her about finances. They had explained how, if she had gone to Barden she wouldn't have had to worry about rent or anything, so it was the least they could do. Blah, blah, blah. She would have actually refused their help, again, except her rent was coming due in just a few days and Beca knew she wouldn't be able to make the $200 she still needed for it in the two shifts she had before the dreaded due date. So she ended up caving and let them set up a bank account in her name which they both added money to in order to help her out with rent and food.

She tried not to touch it, if she could help it, but it was there for times when money was short. And it also let her cut her hours back at the diner so that she could finally start focusing on her mixes and getting herself out there instead of being constantly distracted by stupid crap like paying bills.

That wasn't to say there weren't a few distractions here and there. She fondly remembered an 18 and over night at a lesbian bar called Violet's where she ended up bringing home a girl named Lakshmi, but it's not like either one of them wanted to rush out and get a U-Haul truck. There had been a few others, including a girl she had some shower fun with, and a curious girl named Haley about a week prior to the laundry room incident as she was calling it in her head, but again, nothing serious.

In the end, though, the difference was that none of those girls stuck around. Each was just a night of fun, a release of tension before they went their separate ways. Hell, she had never even gotten shower girl's name. It also helped that none of them lived in her building. And, just like that, her thoughts were back onto that damned redhead again.

Chloe had spent a good hour the previous night telling Beca more than she had ever wanted to know about competitive collegiate a capella. Of course, it had been Beca's fault as the brunette had brought up what she was calling "Pukegate", and had had to call the ginger on her lie regarding their performances being up on YouTube. She had also seen another video that intrigued her, a more recent one, but chose not to comment on it, at this time.

After an hour of hearing the redhead talking about her time at college with the Barden Bellas, Beca wasn't surprised to find her dreams that night had been odd ones of her attending Barden University and singing with the Bellas, using her mixes to take them to victory at the championship thing. The dream had woken her with a start, and she had tried to laugh it off, even in her own head. Because, really, was there anything more queerballs than imagining her singing a capella? Yeah, she didn't think so either.

It wasn't the first time, though, that she had thought about what it would have been like had she hadn't come to LA but had gone with her parent's plan instead. Over the last year she had, from time to time, found herself thinking what would have happened if she had acquiesced to her parents' wishes and how different her life would be. Though, in all fairness after the encounter she had had this last May when her dad was in town visiting, those thoughts had come less and less.

After hearing about the weekend that Beth had spent with their daughter, her father had decided to pay a visit once the school year was over. And so not long after the last grades were turned in, he was on his way to the Golden State. Compared to the little bit of time her mom had had to spend with her while she was in town, Beca found that her relationship with her dad was still just as strained as it had been since he had walked out on her and her mom. Well, not that bad, but things were still very awkward. Especially because by that point in time she was actually DJing at one of the local clubs part time, which meant that she had a lot more free time than when her mom had visited.

It had taken nearly nine months of trying, but she had finally gotten a bite from one of the numerous demos she had sent out. It had finally happened. She had gotten a call back to come play at some local club, just a tiny place that was hosting a DJ's equivalent of an open mic night, but with a twist. The "winner" would take home $500 and earn a spot as a part-time DJ at the club. The owner had actually found the thumb drive she had sent to the club sitting at the DJ booth and listened to the tracks and thought she stood a good chance. As it turned out, the previous DJ at the club had somehow gotten a hold of the drive before the manager had seen it and had even taken to using the few mixes that she had put on the drive as his own.

However before the owner could fire him for that the man had already been caught stealing from the cash registers, so he was in jail, and now the club needed a new DJ. The winner would basically take over the thief's spot in the rotation of DJs that the club used, but to Beca it almost seemed like poetic justice if she could get the spot, seeing as her mixes, well five of them at least, had already been entertaining patrons it seemed only fitting that the rest, and the creator of them, could do the same.

The competition had really been anything but, and the young brunette, though still not old enough to even drink at The Hammer, had easily secured the top billing and gotten her first paying gig as a DJ. To say that she was ecstatic about it was an understatement, and Beca had ridden that high for at least two weeks. It wasn't much, only two nights a week, but it was enough that Beca could stop waitressing at the diner and barely had to dip into the account her parents had set up to cover her bills. She knew that if she could just pick up a couple more nights, or get something at a different club on her off nights, then she'd be set and wouldn't have to take her parents money at all anymore. And that was a day she especially started looking forward to when she got a call just two weeks later from her dad.

The jist of the conversation was that since she was taking his money to live in LA, then he was going to come and visit as soon as school was over for the year. Her mom showing up randomly was a great surprise and a nice treat. Her dad telling her that he'd be spending four days in LA and "checking up" on her was just about the worst news she could have received. Still, she had taken money from them for a long time before this gig, so she couldn't very well say no. But that didn't stop her from dreading the four days of hell, as she called them to herself, and counting the days until the end of May with a growing sense of despair.

His first day in LA started out about as she expected. He had gotten a cab from the airport and called her as soon as he had gotten to his hotel to plan their days together. From there it had only gotten worse because he had just so happened to pick four days when she had no gigs booked, so she couldn't even avoid him by telling him she had to go to work.

There was, however, one highlight to the trip. And it had come on their second day together as he had been telling her how much better things could have gone for her if only she had gone to college and gotten her degree. The pair had just walked into the Cheesecake Factory and been seated.

* * *

"_Welcome to the Cheesecake Factory, my name is… Oh, hi. Uh, Beca, right?" The blond girl that Beca recognized as being her neighbor said as she walked up to the table her dad and she sat at. Grasping at straws in her memory she finally dredged up the girl's name._

"_Hey Penny, and yeah it's Beca." The brunette said with a small smile._

"_Wow. It's, like, crazy seeing you here. You know, I don't think I've ever seen you here before." Penny said, letting the pad she was holding drop to her side as she looked at the elusive brunette who lived above Leonard and Sheldon. _

"_Oh, well, yeah. I, uh, I don't eat out much." Beca said nervously. That was actually a bald-faced lie, as Beca loved eating out and, as a matter of fact, didn't even know if she had enough stuff in her fridge right now to even make a proper meal. Late night Taco Bell runs were going to be the death of her, she was fairly sure, but she didn't really want to tell the blond that the reason she never came in was because she was basically avoiding her. Not that she didn't like Penny, she just didn't know her. And, frankly, didn't want to know her because there were things more important than "getting to know your neighbors" to Beca's mind._

"_Oh, I think you do your share of eating out." Penny teased, smiling at the blush it earned from Beca. "Well, it's nice to see you. If it wasn't for the fact that Sheldon can't stop complaining about your, to use his words, 'infernal racket', we might have thought you'd died on us with how little we see you around." Penny said, laughing and hitting the young girl on the arm as Beca let out a nervous chuckle._

"_Nope, uh, not dead. Just, you know, busy. But we're hungry now, so here we are." Beca said, hoping that mentioning that they were hungry would inspire the blond to take their orders and leave. Then again, this wasn't that much worse than the previous conversation with her dad so…_

"_Well, that's good, because I certainly wouldn't want to live someplace where someone died. I mean, yeesh, imaging what that might to do your karma, am I right?" Penny said, shuddering at the thought of how much harder it would be to get a good movie role with that hanging over her head. Smiling back at her neighbor she went on, "But you're not, so that's good. And you've 'been busy', eh? Busy with what? We're always wondering what you do and why you always seem to play so much loud music. I mean, are you like a rock star or something?"_

"_No. Not a rock star. And, well, I've just been busy doing stuff." Beca said, with a sigh as she watched her dad roll his eyes at her obvious discomfort with the whole situation. Deciding to be a little more direct she added, "But, you know, I'm just showing my dad around the city and we wanted to grab some food real fast between, uh, seeing the sights."_

"_Oh, and I was wondering who this was. Nice to meet you, Beca's Dad, I'm Penny. I live downstairs from her in 4B." Penny said, holding out her hand to shake his._

"_Hi, I'm Dr. Mitchell, but you can call me Chris. It's nice to meet you Penny." Chris said, shaking the blond's hand with an amused grin on his face. Deciding to take pity on his daughter he said, "And Beca's right, we are kind of in a hurry. We were going to head up to the Hollywood sign later and watch the sun set over LA."_

"_Oh, well, let me take your order then. I'll have plenty of time to chat after I get it in with the cooks." Penny said, which only made Beca groan quietly._

_Penny was true to her word, and quite possibly the worst waitress that Beca had ever seen, and she had seen her fair share having waitressed in two different restaurants in two different cities. Despite all the subtle hints that the brunette kept dropping about leaving them in peace, the blond wouldn't leave. Thankfully, though, she spent most of the time talking to Chris about his work as a professor at Barden as Beca was very reluctant to answer any questions about herself._

_In fact, the only reason the blond left their table, aside from going to get their food once it was finally up, was when one of the busboys dropped a tray full of dishes. The crash of the tub hitting the floor shocked Beca so much that, and if you asked her about this later she would deny it but, she emitted a soft squeak. Penny, thankfully, jumped about a mile into the air and screamed, so the brunette's quiet noise went more or less unnoticed._

_Naturally after the racket calmed down everyone turned to see a slightly chubby brunette boy looking utterly mortified as a few people in the room started clapping. As though the sight of dishes with food on them was a reminder Penny said, "Oh yeah, I bet your food is ready. I'll go get it."_

"_Now see, Becs, if it weren't for your mom and I helping you out, you'd be just like that Penny. Aspiring to big dreams, and working in a dead-end waitressing job. But if you had gone to college first…" Her dad started saying before something about the brown haired boy caught his eye._

"_Damnit Dad, I really don't wanna hear another lecture on 'if I had gone to college'. I'm starting to make it, you know? I've got this gig at The Hammer that, I think, will pay off real soon and help me get something going elsewhere too. In fact, I've been talking to someone, a girl who is a regular at the club." Beca said, not noticing how distracted her dad was, but wanting to get off the subject once and for all. Oblivious to the puzzled expression on his face she kept going, "She's going to be opening a new club real soon, she says. Pulse, or something, and wants me to work there… Dad. Are you even listening to me?"_

"_What? No. I mean, yes. Yes, of course I am, Becs. I just… That kid. I recognize him." Chris said, pointing to the busboy who had finally picked up the last of the dishes he had dropped and was moving off towards the kitchen. "I think he used to go to be a student at my school… Allen, something, was his name. Wait, I remember. Bumper Allen, that's right. He graduated this year, I think…"_

"_Hmmm, well, I see his 'fancy college degree' is doing him a lot of good. I'm telling you, dad, that this was the best thing I could have done. I have to pay my dues. And I have been, goodness knows I have been. And it's about to pay off, soon…" Beca said as the hapless Bumper Allen sulked into the kitchen followed by a last few bits of applause._

* * *

The rest of the trip had gone slightly better after her dad had seen what sometimes happens when you have a "fancy college degree" in a big city like LA. Of course, it also helped that he saw how happy she was working as a DJ. She showed him some of the newest stuff she was working on, and even though it wasn't his music, he could see that Beca loved what she was doing.

All in all the trip didn't go nearly as bad as she had feared, and in the intervening weeks he had even laid off with the whole "when you come to college" talk, which was another bit of stress of Beca's lap. College… Barden University. Beca couldn't help but shake her head as she realized just how small and interconnected the world was.

When the ginger had cornered her in the laundry room and espoused all about her time in a college a capella group, Beca had been so focused on the oddity of the situation to fully process everything that Chloe had said. The girl, and her roommate, had gone to Barden University. The same school that her dad taught at. Shaking her head she put aside the thoughts of whether they would have met on campus if her parents had had their way a year ago and tried to get back into the mix she was working on. She had a lot of prep work to do.

Sidney, the regular from The Hammer that Beca had mentioned to her dad back in May had gotten a hold of her two weeks earlier and told her that the club she was opening, Pulse, was nearly ready to go and that she wanted Beca there for the grand opening in three weeks. Ever since Beca had been furiously mixing and mashing and creating new tracks to play for the event. With just a week left until the opening, the brunette knew she had more than enough, but there was something about her that just wouldn't quit. Especially with that damned redhead bouncing through her head. Damned distractions!

Running a hand through her hair, Beca groaned and leaned back in her chair. Closing her eyes, she pulled her headphones off and decided that maybe what she needed was some lunch. Before she could even bring herself to get up and go change out of the sweatpants and t-shirt she had thrown on after waking up, Beca heard a knock from her front door echoing through the apartment.

Wondering who the hell would be knocking on her door, and dreading who she was fairly sure it was, the brunette got up. Walking out of the second bedroom which she had turned into her own little sound studio, Beca strode towards the door as the knocking sounded again. Calling out she said, "I'm coming, I'm coming. Hold your freaking horses…"

Pausing at the door to take a deep breath, Beca glanced down at herself and couldn't help but shake her head. A faded old pair of sweats, courtesy of her father back before she told him that she wasn't going to college, and an old Van Halen t-shirt. Combine that with what she knew would be terribly messy bed-head, and the brunette couldn't help but chuckle at the amazing impression she'd no doubt be making. After running one of her hands a couple times through her hair to quasi-fix it, Beca opened the door to reveal the sight she had expected, and feared.

"Wow am I not surprised that you're here?" Beca asked, sarcasm dripping off her tone as her redheaded neighbor walked right into the apartment, brushing through the very narrow gap that Beca had thought would be sufficient to let the ginger know to stay in the hall. Sighing she turned as Chloe turned around to face her and displayed a measuring cup.

"I'm making cupcakes!" Chloe said happily, and rather mysteriously if you asked Beca, who frowned in confusion. Rolling her eyes, Chloe waggled the measuring cup in front of Beca's face as she said, "I'm making cupcakes. You know, little miniature cakes, wrapped by themselves, frosting on top? Cupcakes."

"I'm aware of what cupcakes are, crazy woman. What's that have to do with you being in my apartment right now?" Beca said as she smirked at the redhead and rolled her eyes at the same time.

"I need more sugar. We ran out… Cuz I might have, you know, used too much making the pie we took down to Leonard, and Sheldon and all those guys a few weeks ago. And, well, I forgot to mention it to Bree, and so we didn't buy any at the store. OH! And eggs, if you have some!" Chloe said, turning and just making her way over to the kitchen to start looking for the sugar and eggs.

"Chloe, I don't think I have…" Beca started to say, knowing that she had no eggs, and probably no sugar in her cupboards before the redhead opened one. But she failed to anticipate exactly how willing Chloe was to violate people's laundry rooms, thoughts, and kitchens apparently.

"Oh my god, Becs! Were you, like, robbed! You have no food in your cupboards! I mean, unless you count the thing of peanut butter. Tell me you at least have jam in the fridge and bread somewhere…" Chloe said, opening first one, then another and another of Beca's cupboards until she had all of them opened to reveal some very empty larders. Turning around to face the brunette with an incredulous look Chloe couldn't help but ask, "How do you even live? Wait, lemme guess. You're going to the store today, right?"

"Ummm…" Beca said, scratching the back of her head as she glanced around her living room.

"Oh my god, Becs." Chloe said, throwing her hands up in the air at the other girl. Catching a glimpse of something poking out of the garbage, Chloe couldn't help but investigate. Finding a pile of Taco Bell bags and other fast food/take out bags in the trash, Chloe groaned before asking, "How have you managed to survive for a year like this? And damn, you really like your Taco Bell, don't you?"

"Guilty… And hey, I've managed to get along just fine this last year. And I'll keep getting along like I have been just fine from here on. Sorry I don't have any sugar, I guess you'll have to go get some." Beca said, trying to be forceful, but knowing that she really just sounded defensive. As she spoke she turned her back on the redhead and walked towards the front door to show her out. When she had the door opened she turned to see Chloe gaping at her, obviously having been just staring at her sweats. Groaning internally, the sweatpants, branded on the back with 'Barden University', would have no doubt jumped out to the Barden alumni standing in her kitchen. She had really been hoping to avoid letting Chloe make that connection. Shit, shit, shit!

"OH MY GOD! Becs! Where did you get those? Did you go to Barden? When!? I totally told you I went to Barden! Why didn't you say anything?" Chloe asked, a slew of words rushing from her mouth as she almost ran across the room to stand in front of Beca, far too close for the brunette's comfort level.

"Ummm, no. I, uh, I never went to college. They were, uh given to me." Beca said, unable to properly form complete sentences with the redhead standing less than two feet from her.

"Oh…" Chloe said, disappointment obvious in her tone. But her smile was back in a flash as she said, "Wait! That means you know someone who went to Barden, right? Why didn't you say anything?"

Crap. Beca knew she was screwed. Fuck it, might as well bite the bullet and come clean. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she let it out in a sigh before saying, "It's my dad. He, uh, teaches at Barden. Comparative Literature. Dr. Chris Mitchell. He gave me the sweats last year, before he realized that I wasn't going to be going to college out of high school. Before I told him, and my mom, that I was coming to LA."

"Oh my god, Becs! So, wait, last year? That means you'd be a sophomore now. We totally could have been best friends, for, like a year! I feel robbed!" Chloe said, wrapping the younger girl up in a big hug, completely oblivious to the fact that Beca was standing straight as a board in the embrace.

"Ummm, well, school's not really my thing. But, uh, sure." Beca said, her breath stirring Chloe's hair as she stood, extremely uncomfortably, in the redhead's embrace. When Chloe finally stepped back, Beca noticed a distinct glint in the girl's amazingly clear cerulean eyes.

"You know, it doesn't matter. We can make up for time lost now. I just know we're gonna be fast friends! Now, go get dressed, we can head down to the store together, it'll be aca-awesome!" Chloe said, grabbing both of Beca's hands as she spoke and holding on, somewhat awkwardly due to the measuring cup in her hand. Leaning in she kissed the short brunette on the cheek lightly before spinning and heading off across the hall to get dressed herself. "See you in ten minutes, Becs!"

Beca, standing in a stupor of shattered plans for remaining aloof from life in the City of Angels, just watched as the redhead's apartment door closed behind her. Sighing in defeat she shut her own door before making her way into her bedroom, she knew that Chloe wouldn't let her get out of the shopping trip. And, well, she supposed she could stand to have a few more snacks in the place, for her late night mixing sessions.

* * *

"You do realize you're cleaning up as soon as we get back, right?" Aubrey asked, the words not even close to a question as the pair got out of the car in the Cheesecake Factory parking lot. She wasn't able to restrain the slight glare she shot in the direction of the redhead as Chloe tried to surreptitiously wipe flour off her clothes before deciding she was flour-free and locking the doors to her Jetta. Shaking her head she sighed at her roommate as she added, "And you realize it's a good thing that Janet and Seth haven't brought my car yet. Your flour-covered ass would not have been allowed in my baby."

"Totally, Bree. I mean, I'd have, uh, had the place clean by now. If you, you know, hadn't come home early…" Chloe said, looking a bit sheepish. Giving herself one last glance she seemed to be finally satisfied that she had gotten all the flour and other cupcake-related materials off her clothes. Deciding that changing the subject might be best she hitched her winningest smile onto her face and said, "Oh yeah, Janet and Seth should be getting here, what, next week with your car, right?"

"Yeah, Jan said that they were finally able to get some time off next week to drive out." Aubrey said, slightly mollified by the irresistible cheeriness of the redhead.

Shaking her head slightly, Aubrey gestured for Chloe to lead the way in as she considered that, with that smile, Chloe could probably get away with murder, so what was a little flour? The blond had gone out for her morning run that morning well before Chloe woke up, and it seemed to Aubrey that her roommate was starting to get into that lazy movie star mode a bit prematurely, but the redhead was awake when she had gotten home a couple hours later. Awake and in the kitchen puttering around looking for various ingredients. As Aubrey had walked through the door, Chloe had called out asking if they had any sugar left, because she was going to make some cupcakes. Aubrey had told Chloe that she had no clue, but that if the ginger was going to run to the store, Aubrey had started a list of some things they needed on the Post-It note on her desk.

Jumping into the shower, Aubrey quickly cleaned herself up and started getting dressed, she was planning on heading over to the Cal Tech campus that morning to help familiarize herself with it. She only had a couple of months before classes started, and she wanted to make sure she knew the campus like the back of her hand. After four years at Barden, Aubrey was used to never being lost on campus, and Cal Tech had a much larger campus than Barden did.

Strolling out into the living room, she saw Chloe leaning over her desk looking at the list she'd drawn up. Grabbing her keys, she told the redhead to pay for the groceries using the joint bills account that they had had since they rented their first apartment together in their junior year at Barden. When Chloe looked up at her with a slight smile on her face, Aubrey noticed for the first time that a measuring cup was sitting on her desk. Seeing the glint in the redhead's eye that said she had a plan, Aubrey just held her hands up and said, "I don't wanna know what you're planning, I'm going to be at Cal Tech for several hours, just make sure you don't burn the building down."

And, well, the redhead had at least followed her instructions about not burning the building down. She had, however, made it look as though a small bomb had exploded in their kitchen, spraying flour, sugar, frosting, and other assorted cupcake mixings around the room haphazardly.

Chloe had tried to explain that she had gone over to Beca's, to torture the girl if Aubrey didn't know better, and ended up going out shopping. Then, because she had told Beca she was making cupcakes, the ginger had promptly done just that. But, in her haste to, no doubt, want to get cupcakes across the hall quickly, well… Needless to say, Chloe had a bit of work waiting for her at their apartment. Aubrey had been too hungry to argue with the redhead at the time and just said that they would go and eat out for dinner, and that Chloe could clean up when they got back.

Anxious to avoid her wrath, Aubrey suspected, Chloe had quickly agreed to the plan and so that was how they now found themselves walking into the front doors of the Cheesecake Factory. Almost as though she was waiting for them, the pair found Penny standing up at the front talking to the hostess.

"Hey girls, going to the bar?" Penny asked turning from her conversation with the hostess to greet her friends.

"We're actually here to eat, I made cupcakes and the kitchen's kind of a mess." Chloe said, ignoring the look Aubrey shot in her direction at the explanation.

"Bernadette, Amy, and the guys just got here, I'm sure they wouldn't mind you joining them." Penny suggested. Reaching down she grabbed a couple more menus and smiled at the two girls, who looked a little nervous. With a chuckled she decided to add, "Well, Sheldon might, but it's fun annoying him."

"You do seem to enjoy it." Aubrey said as Penny led them to the table. She had noticed over the last couple "Titan nights", as the guys were wont to call it, that their blond neighbor seemed to delight in taunting Sheldon. Penny's appearance at the table with Chloe and Aubrey in tow chorused a round of "hellos" from everyone, except Sheldon, who seemed, as the blond had anticipated, slightly annoyed at the addition of two new tablemates.

"Penny, were you planning on taking our orders any time soon, or where you just going to keep seating people at our table?" Sheldon asked irritably.

"It's not like they're strangers, they're our friends Sheldon." Bernadette chimed in, smiling at the two girls as they took seats at the table.

"Awwwwww! Thank you Bernadette." Chloe said as she sat down next to the shorter woman. Beaming her winning grin at the blond she added, "Just for that, I'll make sure you get some of the cupcakes I just made."

"I have a recipe for strawberry cupcakes that would be perfect for a redhead like you." Raj offered as he finished his grasshopper.

"Thanks Raj, you'll have to give it to me some time." Chloe said, smiling sweetly at the man before realizing how it came across. Shaking her head and raising her hands quickly at the look on his face she said, "Not like that."

"I don't know, sweetie, I think Chloe's got eyes for another brunette." Penny teased, causing Aubrey to roll her eyes. And Amy to glare at Chloe.

"You can't have Sheldon, he's mine!" Amy practically yelled at the redhead drawing every eye in the dining room to them.

Blushing furiously Chloe raised her hands defensively and said quietly, "I don't, I mean, I'm not after Sheldon. And I don't have 'eyes' for anyone, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't deny it, Chlo, you've got a total toner for Beca." Aubrey said.

"Uhhh, what's a 'toner'?" Leonard asked curiously.

"Sorry, it's an a capella expression, it means she has a –" Aubrey started to say before Chloe cut her off.

"it's ok, Bree, they don't need to know what it is, because I so don't have a toner for Beca. I just think she's, interesting. I mean, she could have been a Bella!" Chloe said quickly, defending herself. As if it would put the matter to rest once and for all she added, "Her dad wanted her to go to Barden!"

"Yes Chlo, you've told me that at least a dozen times now." Aubrey replied as she rolled her eyes. After a second, though, a thought occurred to her and it made her chuckle before she added, "Though I have to admit it's kind of funny, you know that Treble Jesse would have been all over her."

"We're not getting food anytime soon are we?" Sheldon asked, realizing that Penny was way too caught up in the gossip to actually attempt to do her, even though it was only hypothetical gossip and about people she didn't know.

"Fine, fine, I'll take your orders." Penny said with a sigh as she made a face at Sheldon. After going around the table and taking everyone's orders she said, "I'll go put these in before Sheldon tries to report me to my manager, again."

"I wouldn't have done it the first time if you had gotten my order right the first time." Sheldon said to the blond girl's retreating back. Turning to look down the table towards where Chloe and Aubrey were sitting he went on, "And now that she's gone we can get back to important matters. How goes the operation to infiltrate that infernal noisemaker's confidence so you can convince her to stop interrupting my sleep with that racket she calls music?"

"Oh, uh. It's, well, it's coming along. It's a slow process, but I'm making progress." Chloe said nervously, trying hard to avoid Aubrey's gaze.

"Excellent. Soon you'll have her convinced that you're her friend and I can finally get what I want for a change." Sheldon said happily, and completely oblivious to the looks that everyone around the table were giving him. Even Aubrey and Chloe had begun to pick up on the fact that Sheldon pretty much got whatever he wanted, though he complained miserably about it even after the fact.

"How, uh, how are you guys settling in?" Bernadette asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Oh, it's been a bit of a shock, coming here straight out of college. Getting used to how expensive life can be, especially in LA, was kind of an eye opener." Aubrey said, taking a sip of her water.

"You know, if you need a little extra cash to help out with the bills once classes start up in the fall you can check the jobs board. There are usually positions available for PhD candidates as research assistants and what not that are occasionally paid positions. Plus they'll look great when you go to get approval for your thesis." Leonard offered.

"You know, that's a great idea. I'll have to look into that. Thanks." Aubrey said happily.

Quiet chatter filled the table for a while as the group talked about random things, especially as Sheldon, when he wasn't interested in whatever the topic was, would change the subject to something completely different and usually quiet odd. However it didn't last long as eventually Penny came back with a tray that held everyone's orders and soon people were too busy eating to talk.

After the food was finished and everyone had paid, everyone started going their own separate ways. Bernadette heading back to her apartment, and offering to give Amy a ride. Raj declined Leonard and Sheldon's offer to come back to their place for some late 90s sci-fi movie classics marathon that was on because he had to "get home to cook Cinnamon her steak". And when asked why he didn't just get her a steak from the restaurant he said that he would never force her to ever eat anything so terrible as a steak from the restaurant. When Chloe said goodbye to Sheldon and Leonard, saying that she'd see them at the apartment soon, the redhead learned that the other two were heading to "the comic book store", as Stuart had just gotten some new comic that Sheldon needed to complete some set.

Which was how Chloe found herself hiking her way up the stairs to their apartment accompanied only by Aubrey, who said, "You know, I'm glad we chose this place instead of that other apartment we were looking at that was a little closer to campus. Despite Sheldon's quirks, I like those guys and gals…"

"Me too." Chloe said, relief evident in her voice as they started up the last flight before their floor. Slightly out of breath she added, "I'm really glad we chose this place too. There are lots of cool people here."

Aubrey just rolled her eyes as she saw the redhead look towards 5A as she spoke and instead of commenting fished her keys from her purse. Unlocking the door and stepping through, they were greeted with the sight of their disaster of a kitchen and Aubrey suddenly remembered why they had gone out for dinner in the first place.

"Um, I'll, uh, start cleaning this up…" Chloe said doing her best to look sweet and innocent, no doubt to avoid Aubrey's wrath. Glancing at her best friend who looked rather pitiful as she slunk towards the kitchen, Aubrey sighed again before speaking.

"You know what, Chlo, don't worry about it right now. Go get changed, let's go see a movie. It's been a while since we went out to the movies and I know you've been wanting to see that new Ice Age movie. You and that squirrel have a lot in common, by the way." The blond said, following her own advice to Chloe and moving towards her bedroom to change into a different outfit.

A few minutes later, Aubrey walked out to find Chloe already changed and standing by the door, one cupcake in her hand. When the blond raised an eyebrow at the pastry, Chloe just shrugged and showed the candy "B" sitting on top of it as she said, "It's for Beca. I mean, it's partly her fault for the mess, we had to go to the store to get the last of the ingredients and stuff, otherwise I wouldn't have had enough sugar."

"Fine, we can drop it off on the way downstairs, but she is not invited! This is best friend bonding time." Aubrey said, wanting to make it clear from the get go that the little hobbit across the hall wasn't invited.

"That's cool. She probably wouldn't wanna see Ice Age anyway…" Chloe said, opening the door and starting across the hallway as Aubrey stepped out behind her, closing and locking their own apartment.

The blond turned from locking the door to see Chloe about to knock, when they both heard the door open up. Aubrey moved across the hall as Chloe stepped back, revealing a surprised Beca dressed as though she was heading out and carrying a laptop bag over her shoulder.

"Oh, uh. Hi." The brunette said awkwardly as she stepped into the hallway and locked her door. Turning back to face the two girls, Beca started in surprise as Chloe unleashed her biggest smile and held out the cupcake.

"I made one for you! See! It even has a 'B' on it, for Beca!" Chloe said, smiling even bigger, if that was possible, as Beca awkwardly took the small pastry.

"Oh. Well, thanks. I'm, uh, heading out right now, but I'll be sure to eat it later." Beca said, turning to head down the steps. Chloe fell in step beside her, leaving Aubrey to trail behind the pair, which elicited a "hmph" from the blond which Chloe ignored.

"Oh? Where ya off to? If I had to guess I'd say clubbing. But, wait. You're bringing a laptop. Hmmmm, maybe you're off to a fancy LAN party. Wait, are you into that sort of thing? I mean, not that LAN parties aren't cool, and stuff, I'm just not a huge gamer. I can never stick with one long enough to get good. Still though, lots of people like them. I've even see Bree playing from time to time!" Chloe's voice carried easily through the stairwells as the trio walked downstairs, it's never ending flow not giving the short brunette a chance to answer.

Of course, Beca had no intention of answering anyway, she was bound and determined to get back to being the loner in the building, and the first step of that was to cut off ties with the redhead. When they finally reached the ground floor and exited the building, Beca spoke up for the first time, cutting through the steam of questions and answers that Chloe was spouting. "Yeah, I got some stuff planned tonight. I'll see you guys later. Thanks for the cupcake."

"I hope she likes the cupcake." Chloe said, watching Beca walk off into the small crowd on the street. Turning towards where she had parked, she saw Aubrey there with a scowl on her face. Looking confused the ginger asked, "What?"

"What? I'll tell you what. You need to forget that girl. She's trouble, I tell you. Come on, let's go see the movie. And I think it might be time to check out the local club scene, see if we can't find you someone other than that hobbit for you to have a toner for." Bree said, sighing as she too turned towards where Chloe had parked.

"Bree! I do not have a toner for Beca! God, how many times do I have to say that?" Chloe asked, stamping her foot as she unlocked the doors. "She's just interesting. I wonder where she was off to tonight…"

* * *

"That movie was super cute! I'm glad we went to see it. Thanks for coming with me, Bree!" Chloe said, smiling brightly at Aubrey as she parked.

"Hmmm, well, it wasn't terrible. And don't forget, it was my idea to see a movie." Aubrey said, finding herself smiling back at the redhead as they got out of the car. Pointing an admonitory finger at Chloe she made sure to add, "But that doesn't mean you're off the hook. I expect you to start cleaning the kitchen as soon as we get upstairs."

"Yes Bree…" Chloe said forlornly. Walking around the corner to the building entrance from where she had parked, Chloe perked up as she saw Beca walking towards them. Her smile fell, though, when she realized that the brunette wasn't alone.

"Oh, uh." Beca said, holding the front door open for the blond girl with her as well as for Chloe and Aubrey.

"Thanks." Aubrey said as they all started walking up the steps together, an uncomfortable silence settling over the three neighbors as the blond girl with Beca giggled drunkenly.

"We have to take the stairs? Man… My feet are killing me, dancing in these heels, you know?" The girl said, her words slightly slurred as she gestured towards her shoes and fell slightly into the brunette who caught her.

As the four walked up the steps, Beca and her "date" in the lead, Aubrey couldn't help but notice the odd look on Chloe's face as she watched Beca's back. The blond had a hard time placing the emotion, however, as it seemed to range from hurt, to jealousy, to determination as the foursome climbed. Well, it appeared that Aubrey might get her wish about Chloe finding someone new sooner than she had thought. Score one for the good guys, the blond thought as Beca bid them another awkward goodbye from her door, which the two roommates returned just as awkwardly.


End file.
